


Green With Envy

by UnderworldAngel



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Denial, Denial of Feelings, F/M, Gen, Jealous Adrien Agreste, Jealous Chat Noir, Oblivious Marinette Dupain-Cheng
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-17
Updated: 2017-07-14
Packaged: 2018-07-15 17:03:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 26,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7231084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnderworldAngel/pseuds/UnderworldAngel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With the workload at the bakery picking up, Tom Dupain hires a assistant to help him and his wife manage the shop. The new worker is not only a handsome college junior but he's incredible helpful and sweet, becoming fast friends with Marinette and gains lots of (female) business. Too bad a certain cat boy can't help but feel jealous over the new competition for his princess.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Overload

**Author's Note:**

> So sorry, I was planning on putting this story on both FF.net and Ao3 but certain event cause me to delay/forget about putting it here. So I'm finally putting it here. My bad!

Before Marinette got a foot into the door, the girl was shoved aside by a rushing customer, allowing all the noise inside the bakery to explode into the air. To say the bakery was busy was an understatement. Over sixty customers were squeezed inside the tiny interior, nearly twice the maximum capacity that the safety code allowed for that size of a lobby. Over the multiple bobbing heads, she could see her father, Tom, frantically giving and taking orders.

"Yes, yes, your cake is in the oven and will be ready in fifteen minutes," said Tom, his voice speaking rapidly before turning to the crowd, holding two large carry out boxes, "Number 715 and 716, I have your orders ready!"

"Sir! I order a strawberry Charlotte half an hour ago! When will it be ready?" yelled a female voice.

"Where is my order of a dozen macarons?!" screamed an indignant male voice.

"Mommy, mommy," squealed a child's voice, barely audible over all the chaos, "Can I eat a jésuite when it's ready?"

"Excuse me! I asked for a croissant and a chocolat chaud and it's been ten minutes," replied a snobby female voice.

"I don't mean to be rude but I need that order of Tarte Normande!"

Sabine and Tom were running in and out from the front of the store to the back of the bakery, each writing down orders and then coming back with takeout pastry boxes. The bluenette tried waving her hands in the air, jumping up and down to get her parents attention, but they didn't see her among the many complaining and impatient customers. Marinette had to swim through the crowd to even be able to get her mother's attention. "Marinette! There you are!" Sabine exclaimed, reaching for her daughter's hand and pulling her behind the register, "Please, honey, can you give your father and I a hand? Here is order #720, a baker's dozen of puits d'amour. Start packing them in the back, I'm sure the other workers have already stuffed them with jelly."

Sighing, Marinette placed her backpack under the counter as her mother gave change to a couple with their child, handing over the order, then slipped on an apron and headed towards the back. Fridays were usually the busiest for her dad's bakery, but this was _way_ over the usual weekend rush! It was made worst since she had just came home from school and just took care of an akuma attack. But she ignored her screaming muscles and started packing away the rush of orders as fast as she could.

* * *

Midnight struck by the time, Marinette and her parents climbed into their living room. The tidal wave of orders came in the afternoon and bled into the evening, forcing Tom to leave the bakery open later than it usually is due to the influx of demands. Over a hundred customers later, the Dupain-Cheng family bakery was left with a messy kitchen, a disorganized front lobby, 90% of their supplies gone and aching, sore muscles that they would definitely feel in the morning.

"At least we made enough money to replace all the supplies," smiled Sabine.

"True, but the bakery has been getting more and more busy each day," replied Tom, rubbing his head, "I don't think I can handle all these orders coming in at once. This is the third time this week!"

"Don't worry, dad," cheered Marinette, "I'm sure you can handle it! I'll help after school everyday if you need an extra pair of hands!"

"Oh sweetie, thank you but you should be worried about your school work, not the bakery," Sabine answered, kissing her daughter on the cheek, "Besides, don't you have that project with Alya this weekend?

"Huh? Oh, right! My project..." smiled Marinette, nervously. She didn't have any project with Alya, that was just one of her many excuses she gave when she had to leave to deal with an akuma attack. This week's excuse was a history project with Alya.

"It's fine," sighed Tom, sinking into the couches, "We'll think of something. Maybe hire some extra hands."

Marinette quickly crept upstairs as her parents started discussing what they should do about the sudden rush of customers. Once inside the safety of her bedroom, Marinette opened her purse to let Tikki fly out. "Sorry for making you stay inside my bag all day, Tikki," apologized Marinette, setting down a plate of leftover sweets she snuck in, "The entire bakery was swamped with orders."

"I could tell," replied Tikki, picking up a sugar cookie and nibbling on it, "Your parents must be exhausted from working all day."

"Tell me about it," mumbled Marinette, wiping a hand across her face. A thin layer of flour and powdered sugar covered her body and dusted her head. "And it's not even over. Mom has to deliver two wedding cakes in the morning and dad still has to finish the mayor's order of 24 baker's dozen petit four by next week. Even with their employees, they are always swamped with orders and can barely keep track of everything. They used to be fine but nowadays their demands have been getting higher and dad is really feeling the pressure."

"Maybe they should hire more workers," said Tikki.

"I don't think it's the amount of workers that's the issue. It's more like the amount of orders they get and dad has a bit of trouble organizing things," stated Marinette, "I think they're just overwhelmed by the workload they've been having this week."

"Let's hope it get better," chirped Tikki.

Marinette yawned and decided to take a shower rather than get her bed dirty with her flour-coated self. As she walked downstairs, she saw the couch empty and her parents gone. Tom and Sabine had gone back downstairs to help the two remaining workers with clean up duties. Tom went to check over the order list a third time while Sabine took inventory of what ingredients remained and what needed to be replaced. Simon, a 20-something college student, came up to Sabine and told her about one of the oven being too filthy to bake with.

"Ugh, I'll clean it before I go to bed," replied Sabine, looking over at the oven.

"I could clean it up a bit if it helps," offered Simon, but Sabine shook her head.

"No, it's getting too late and I don't want you to be out at this time of night," the tiny woman turned to her husband, "Tom! Can you give Simon and Francis a ride back to their homes?"

"Sure, just let me get my keys," answered Tom.

By the time Marinette finished with her shower, Sabine had cleaned the ovens and Tom had returned from dropping off his employees, it was half passed 1am before the family fell asleep. They trio didn't bother with dinner as the overpowering aromas from the bakery had made them a bit sick of food. Each prayed that the next day would be a lot easier and that they wouldn't suffer the same chaotic scene as today.

* * *

Sadly, their prayers went unanswered as the minute the bakery was open the next day, previous clients from the day before came barging in, asking about their orders. Marinette was roped back into helping her parents in bakery, having to cancel her and Alya's plans for the theaters. By the time they had finished the morning rush, the lunch rush started right after. The entire building reeking of baked bread, burnt chocolate and vanilla. Marinette had to put one of those surgical-like face mask in an attempt to lessen the smell. Despite living her entire life above a bakery, if the aroma was too strong, Marinette got sick of it.

' _What was that saying? Something about 'too much of a good thing' or something_?' thought Marinette as she pounded some dough.

"Order# 562, 563, 565 and 570 are ready," called out a worker as he pushed a tray of packed boxes with the order number scribbled on it.

"Got that bread dough ready, Marinette?" asked another worker as they started loading trays into the oven.

"Yeah! Here!" Marinette put one final cut on the last baguette dough before handing over her tray to be baked.

"Hey, Marinette! Mind lending a hand with decorating these cakes?"

Marinette sighed but re-tied her apron, grabbed a piping bag filled with ganache and started a decorating the freshly baked opera cakes. Sabine came in to take the boxes and deliver them to the customer. "Marinette," said Sabine, "Alya called. I told her you'd call back later. Also, when you're finished with the opera cakes, I need you to go up the street and buy some more almond flour and pasteurized milk from the store. We're nearly out."

"Sure, maman," chirped Marinette.

Tom and Sabine continued to service the customers for the next few hours while Marinette manage to finish the cakes, fetch the ingredients and come back before the work load got too heavy. Thankfully, by the time the sun set, the crowd of customers has thinned out, giving the leftover employees a time to relax. Tom sat down on a nearby chair, happy to be off his feet for a while. Sabine comes up behind him and rubs his back, "You okay, dear?"

"Tired, very tired," confessed Tom, "I don't think I can handle another rush of customer. And I don't think I can hire more workers."

"We'll think of something," said Sabine.

"Excuse me," the couple looked up to see Simon poking her head out of the kitchen, "If I could make a suggestion: instead of hiring more workers, why not just hire an assistant?"

"An assistant?" repeated Sabine, looking at Tom.

"Yeah," Simon replied, "An assistant would be in-charge of taking customer orders, keeping inventory and restock, keep records of all the purchases, would cleanup the bakery after closing and overall supervise the workers when you two are too busy."

Simon smiled awkwardly as the couple looked at each other then smiled. "That sounds like a good idea," smiled Tom, "An assistant would keep a more orderly record then I could and would help organize the shop when the both of us are busy."

"Should we put an ad online for an assistant?" asked Sabine, "Someone who is flexible with time, can manage our staff and keep record, multi-task and isn't afraid to help out with baking if needed."

"If you want," pipped Simon, "I can ask some of my classmates at my college. There are several people I know looking for internship at a patisserie and others that want to experience so they can run their own business when they graduate."

"That seems like a great idea," replied Sabine, "We'll contact the school and ask if our bakery can be listed for a possible internship and you can tell you friends."

"Alright!" Simon smiled, pulling out her phone, "I'll send a group text to my classmates to see if any of them are interested in the position. When do you think will be the best time for interviews?"

"Sunday, the workload isn't as heavy and we close up shop early," answered Tom, pulling himself up as a customer walked in, "We'll take turns interviewing and watching the shop."

"We can start interviews around 9:30am," Sabine stated.

After several more walk-ins, the Dupin-Cheng's patisserie decided to closed the shop for the day. Unlike yesterday, they manage to clean up everything to a T and left before the sun set. Marinette trudged upstairs, washing herself clean of flour and various chocolate and icing stains. Sabine had informed her daughter that since the shop would be closing earlier tomorrow and their workload wasn't as large, Marinette was free from shop duty for tomorrow. Marinette sighed happily as she could sleep-in tomorrow and catch up on some of her homework.

Back with Tom and Sabine, they had received an email from Simon with a list of students interested in the position and would be available to interview for tomorrow. They were shocked by the quick reply but where also a bit relieved that they didn't have to wait weeks and interview many students at various dates. Tom and Sabine replied to each and every students, sent up a time to interview and waited for a confirmation.

"So...do you want to do the interviews or should I?" asked Sabine.

"What are we going to ask them?" questioned Tom.

"I'll get a pen and paper and we'll write them down," Sabine replied, fetching said materials.

* * *

Optimism soon died away after the first few interviews, and it was only a quarter 'till noon. Sabine groaned as she crossed out the seventh name on the list. "Only eighteen more to go," she moaned in disappointment.

The last girl was quite rude and acted entitled to the position, loudly declaring that Sabine was making a big mistake by dismissing her. Apparently, she was the daughter to some famous chef who owned a chain or stores though it was clear that the girl didn't have a gift for cooking or business. Her resume wasn't even impressive. The other six interviews weren't as terrible but couldn't fill the position due to class schedule or length of travel or due to plain-ol' inexperience. Tom popped his head into the room, looking at his dejected wife.

"No luck with the interviews?" he asked.

"None yet," she replied, getting up from her chair and stretching her back, "I'm hoping the other half will be a little bad. If not full-time assistant, part-time would be just as good."

"Don't give up, sweetie," Tom said, kissing his wife, "We'll find someone. Now, who's the next on the list."

"Um...Barbara Morel, she comes in at 12:30pm, then Edgar Chastain at 12:50pm, Francis Martel at 1:05pm and then fifteen more after that," answered Sabine, looking at the list, "You want to take over for a while?"

"Not as long as you mind working the front desk and packing desserts?" smirked Tom, handing her an apron.

Sabine snatched the apron, tied it around her waist and handed over the clipboard with various names and questions, "Good luck. You're going to need it."

* * *

Not long after the 19th interviewee slammed the door behind him, Sabine came in to check on her husband. Tom was put into a similar state as she was during the beginning interviews: rubbing his eyes, posture slumped and scanning the list in disappointment. "No luck?" asked Sabine.

"None," Tom informed, crossing out another name on the list, "Three students didn't even showed up for their interviews. One canceled due to finding another internship closer to her home and the one that just left has some anger problems. Maybe we should just forgo the intern-assistant and just put up an ad."

"Here," comforted Sabine, sitting next to her husband, "Let's do the last six together before we do anything else."

"What about the bakery?" argued Tom, "Shouldn't one of us being watching it?"

"It's passed 5pm, Tom," Sabine pointed to a nearby wall clock, "Bakery already closed."

"Huh, forgot it was this late already," Tom replied, yawning a bit.

"So? What do you say?" cheered Sabine, elbowing her husband, "Think you can handle a few more interviews?"

"Alright," agreed Tom, "Bring in the next student."

* * *

"You okay there, Tikki?" Marinette glanced down at her opened over the shoulder bag.

The red kwami nodded, slinking back into the fabric of the bag, "Yeah, just really tired. I need to recharge after that last akuma attack."

Marinette nodded. Just an hour ago, Ladybug and Chat Noir had to fight off Showtime, a flashy-primadonna-esque akuma that would force people to watch and cheer her on when pointed at them with her magician's wand. The victim was the lead singer of a popular theater group who was fired as her vanity, egotistical and temperamental personality made it difficult to work with. She was easy pickings for Hawk Moth's butterflies. It took nearly two hours of needless chasing and dodging Showtime, but it was surprisingly easy to subdue her. Showtime didn't try to take their Miraculous, she just _really_ enjoyed being in the spotlight.

"Not a problem," replied Marinette, entering her home through the side door, "Mom and dad already closed up shop but I'm sure they brought some leftovers into the kitchen.

"Speaking of your parents," pipped Tikki, "How do you think they did with the interviews? Do you think they found someone to work as an assistant?"

"Eh..." croaked Marinette, looking uncomfortable at the question. During the morning, she had sort of eavesdropped on the beginning interviews and well...Marinette didn't have high hopes after those talks.

Climbing up the stairs, Marinette tried to wonder how she should act around her parents. She doubt the interviews bore any fruit if the morning interviews were anything to go by. Maybe she should cheer them up? Offer her time at the bakery again? Then again, it would be difficult to sneak out if an akuma attacks. By the time Marinette reached the top flight of stairs, she heard some sounds coming from her living room. Laughter, by the sounds of it, her parents and a third one voice whom she didn't recognize.

Opening the door, the bluenette found her parents seated on the couch, laughing and chatting away, along with another person. Sabine looked up and saw her daughter enter the room and ran up to her. "Marinette! There you are," smiled Sabine, pushing her towards the couch, "Come! Meet your father's assistant!"

"Assistant?" repeated Marinette, shocked, "You found an assistant?"

"Yes! Isn't it wonderful?" cheered Sabine.

"Marinette, meet our newest employee, Aristide Fournier," introduced Tom, waving towards the guest.

Aristide Fournier stood up from his seat and gave the Dupain-Cheng's daughter a gentle smile as he shook her hand. He was a very beautiful male, with cinnamon colored skin, piercing blue eyes with a side part pompadour hairstyle and an athletic built. Hell, Aristide could pass as a young Gaspard Ulliel with his looks. He dressed casually too with a white button-up shirt, black jeans and some sneakers. "I'm so glad to finally meet you all," he replied, his voice smooth and friendly.

"Aristide is studying in the same culinary school as Simon and is hoping to open his own shop back home," informed Tom, patting the boy on the back.

"I'm originally from Tampere in Finland," stated Aristide, "I'm staying with my grandparents while I attend university."

"Since the university agreed to Aristide internship at our bakery, he'll be working from Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays from 8am to 3:30pm," explained Sabine, "We'll be training him the first week. You can help too, sweetie. When you're not busy with school of course."

"Uh...sure," blushed Marinette.

"I look forward to working with you, Miss Marinette," smiled Aristide.


	2. Assiduous

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aristide is the favorite employee of the Dupain-Cheng's bakery and he makes a delivery to Marinette's school.

"Excuse me," began a rather snobby woman, "I ordered..."

"A dozen eclairs, a box of angel wings, and a chocolate croquembouche with strawberries and drizzled with honey," finished Aristide, giving the impatient woman a 1,000 watt smile that melted her icy facade, "My apologies for the wait."

"No, no, it wasn't any trouble," blushed the customer, taking the boxes of eclairs and angel wings and glancing at the choux pastry cake, "The croquembouche is beautifully decorated."

"I'll give the employees your wonderful complement," Aristide carefully place the croquembouche into a decorative box, "Here, allow me to assist you in taking your packages to your car."

"Oh, my," smiled the woman, "You're too kind!"

"Mrs. Cheng, I'll be right back," called out Aristide, "Just need to help this young lady with her packages."

Sabine giggled as Aristide walked out the bakery with the love-struck woman in tow. After just two weeks of working at the Dupain-Cheng's bakery, Aristide became both a positive fixture and a exceptional worker. He took his job seriously and manage the store swiftly and effectively when he was present. Aristide threw himself into his position with everything he had, even working overtime without being asked. Tom and Sabine took such a shine to the boy that they treated him as a second child and taught him some of their own recipes.

And it wasn't just Sabine and Tom that took a liking to Aristide. "Bonjour, Marinette," smiled Aristide as he returned from his delivery to find the pigtailed girl inside the bakery.

"Hey Aristide," replied Marinette, hugging the college boy, "I wished you could stay in one place, you just missed Alya, again!"

"My apologies, but you know how busy I am," answered Aristide, "Maybe send me over to her house as a delivery boy?"

"Yeah right," laughed Marinette, playfully punching him on his arm, "Alya is rarely at home and you can't work after hours or on long deliveries. Beside, you're too busy here."

She pointed to a long line in front of the cashier's desk, majority of them were women who didn't hide their flirtatious glances at the Finnish male. "What can I say, I'm such a catch," Aristide struck a model pose which caused Marinette to burst out laughing.

"Such modesty," she giggled, "Anyway, I'm heading up for lunch. Tell mom and dad that I'll be free after school to help."

"Great, we need a couple extra hands since Simon and Clara called in sick," replied Aristide, "You can help with frosting and packaging Madame Janet's wedding cake for delivery tomorrow morning."

"Can do!" Marinette called back as she ran up the stairs.

Once in the safety of her empty living room, Marinette opened her purse to let Tikki out. "Okay Tikki, we've got about an hour before I need to go back to school," replied Marinette serving a small plate of petit four, "Eat up! Aristide made these this morning."

"Aristide is such a great worker," commented Tikki, "Everyone just loves him! Your parents love him, all the employees respect him and he has already gain some regular customers!"

"Oh yeah," giggled Marinette, remembering the long line of females, both young and old that were charmed by Aristide the last few days, "He's definitely a favorite worker."

"Even you like him," Tikki tease," Don't lie!"

"He's like an older brother to me," said Marinette, taking a bite of her croque-monsieur, "And while he is handsome, he's too old for me. College student, remember?"

"Age doesn't stop some girls," replied Tikki, picking up another confectionery treat.

"Yeah, no kidding," muttered Marinette. Some of Aristide's more 'faithful' regulars had no problem throwing themselves at him during his hours, despite the fact that there were often significant age differences and that Aristide wasn't looking for a relationship. It wasn't a big issue, save for that one incident where a girl tried to climb over the counter to spy on him, so they didn't much focus on it. Though it did get annoying real fast when they started loitering the shop without buying anything.

But ignoring the fangirls and some fanboys, Aristide had become part of the Dupain-Cheng bakery family. He was well-liked by both the employees and the customers, made organizing orders easier, and manage to upgrade the shop filing system. Heck, he even help set up a website for online orders and expanded the business. "He's definitely going to have no problem creating his own shop back in Finland," remarked Sabine last night, "Though it will be sad to see him go. After just a few days, he's grown on us."

Washing her plate, Marinette started dialing Alya's number. "Hey Alya, you coming back soon."

"Eh, I think I'm going to be running late to class," replied Alya, sounding both annoyed and stressed, "One of my sisters thought it was a good idea to finger paint with peanut butter and grape jelly so I gotta wash the peanut butter from my hair and change clothes."

"Aww, I was hope to finally introduce you to Aristide," whined Marinette.

"Just send me a photo, Mari," laughed Alya, "Don't know why you're so hung up on introducing me to your folk's new employee. You've never done that before. Oh, does someone have a crush~! Is Adrien being replaced by a foreign baker?"

"Hardly! First off, I would never give up on Adrien!" Marinette proclaimed, "Second, Aristide is _way_ too old for me. He's a college student. And I just want to show you how cool he is. My parents love him and he's like the big, goofy brother I never had."

"Well, I'll have to pull off the meet-and-greet for later," stated Alya, "I gotta go and wash off lunch from my hair. Tell Madame Bustier I'll be late for class. Let's hope nothing exciting happens before I get there. Hate for an akuma attack to happen and I'm not there to record it because I had to be scraping jelly stains from my skin."

"Yeah, you really shouldn't get so close to the fights," sighed Marinette, picking up Tikki's clean plate, "How many times have you been injured, attacked or kidnapped?"

"Seven," remarked Alya proudly, "But I'm not counting the times I've been Lady Wifi."

"Bye Alya," replied Marinette tiredly, hanging up her phone. "Come on, Tikki. Looks like we have half an hour to spent. I want to check out the nearby fabric shop for some new arrivals."

Tikki slid back into Marinette's purse as she made her way down the stair. The line in the bakery had grown during the time she was upstairs, more women had returned, buying some tiny treat while trying to make small talk with Aristide. "Later, Aristide," waved Marinette, walking pass the counter, "I'll see you after school..."

"Ehem!" Aristide coughed, holding up Marinette's school bag, "Forgetting something?"

"Oops," Marinette blushed, grabbing her bag, "Thanks!"

As Marinette ran out the shop, Sabine came down, shaking her head. "I swear, that girl would forget her own head if it wasn't attach to her neck."

Aristide laughed, "Marinette's just a kid, leave her be. Beside, if she ever does leave her bag, I wouldn't mind delivering it to her at school."

"I'll hold you up to that," Sabine chuckled, patting Aristide on the back before turning to the line of women, "And unless you're here to place an order or actually buy something, please leave! Go on, shoo!"

Aristide laughed as Sabine shooed the loitering girls out of the shop before turning his attention back to actual customers. Time flew by as he serviced customers, packaged items, recorded incoming online orders and took inventory count of the patisserie's supplies. Marinette's school ended as well and, after dumping her bag in her room, helped with the baking and decorating for the rest of the day. She tried to convince Alya to come but the blogger had to turn the invite down again as she was stuck on babysitting duty again.

"So I placed an order for vanilla extract, powdered sugar and food coloring since we're running low and Madame Janet's cake have already been package for delivery tomorrow. We also have an early morning delivery on Thursday for the GERES environmental rally taking place in front of the Palace of Versailles," reported Aristide, looking over his notes, "Eight dozen croustade, four boxes of Paris-Brest, and ten boxes of coussin de Lyon, 'dyed various shades of green if possible' is what they wrote on their order."

"Alright, I'll have the evening employees start making the marzipan and dough tonight and we'll make the order in the morning," replied Tom as he took the report from Aristide, "You sure you don't need a ride home?"

"Thanks, but I'll be fine," Aristide answered, putting away his apron and picking up his bag, "Besides, my grandparents are going out of town tomorrow so I need to pick up a few things on my way home."

"Well if you say so. Have a good and safe night," called out Sabine, "We'll see you in the morning."

"Bye Aristide!" Marinette yelled from the back, "I promise to drag Alya to meet you!"

"And I have no doubt about that," commented Aristide as he walked out the door, "Night!"

After Aristide departure, the store became pretty quiet with only the occasional evening customer and some of the afternoon employees swapped out for the evening employees. Marinette continued to help out around the bakery until closing time at 9pm. Thankfully there wasn't any akuma attacks today or patrol so she got the luxury of turning in early to bed. She texted Alya for a few minutes, the poor blogger bored out of her mind without anything Ladybug-related to report on, and stated that she promise to meet Aristide tomorrow. With that, Marinette turned off her phone, made a little place for Tikki on her pillow and fell asleep.

* * *

Marinette trudged into the bakery the next day looking haggard and dead on her feet. Morning classes ended early due to an akuma attack. Chloe, no surprise, had to embarrass a first year student by spilling her drink all over the girl's new Gabriel Agreste designer jacket, an expensive piece that the girl spent months saving up for. In her rage, Hawk Moth's akuma transformed her into Fashion Disaster, using whips made out of stained and tacky fabric to turn victims into mannequin and dressed hideous versions of their outfits. After an hour of fighting, Ladybug and Chat Noir successfully defeated Fashion Disaster, purified the akuma and reverted everything back to normal. Though Marinette did get a kick out of the photos that Alya took of mannequin Chloe dressed in gaudy neon yellow and off white clothing.

Unfortunately, the school thought that since everything was back to normal, and they had been through these scenarios all too often, that school would resume after the usual lunch break. Since Alya had captured the entire battle via cellphone camera, she took the lunch period to edit and upload the film to her Ladyblog at home, missing another chance to meet Aristide. Speaking of Aristide, he had just finished handing off another order to a group of giggling high school girls when he spotted Marinette leaning at the door.

"Whoa! Looks like someone just escaped the war zone," joked Aristide before helping the pigtailed girl up, "I heard about the akuma attack, you okay?"

"Yeah, just had to pull Alya back a few times," fibbed Marinette, leaning onto Aristide.

"Come on," replied Aristide, scooping Marinette in his arm, "Let's get you to bed. You need a nap before you can think about going back to class."

Marinette didn't even try to fight as Aristide carried her upstairs, ignoring the dirty looks shot at her by the female customers. He deposited her on the couch, setting down a plate of goodies for her to munch on before heading back downstairs. Tikki popped out of the bag and landed next to the plate of sweets and began nibbling on a buttery croissant. "Mmm, so tasty," gushed Tikki, pointing to another croissant, "Try one! You need your strength."

Groaning, Marinette turned her body into the couch. "Later," she murmured, "Need rest."

Tikki giggled and continued to enjoy the sweets, but made sure to leave a few bites for her Miraculous wielder. Thankfully, Marinette's parents didn't come in the living room to check on Marinette so Tikki didn't have to hide and took a comfortable spot next to Marinette on the couch. Time flew by and Marinette's phone alarm starting going off, signaling that she had five minutes before the next class started. Marinette shot out of the couch, accidentally sending Tikki into the air, crammed the leftover sweets on the plates before running down the stairs and out the bakery.

"Bye Maman, Papa, Aristide, I'm heading out. Gonna be late. Love you, bye!" Marinette shouted in one breath as she ran out the front door, nearly crashing into a entering customer.

"Wait Marinette! You forgot..." Aristide yelled but halted when Marinette was out of view, "...your bag."

Held up in the air was Marinette's pink bag. Aristide sighed as he lowered his arm as Sabine came out form the back. "She forgot her bag didn't she," she smiled, looking amused at Aristide.

"Yep," answered Aristide, "You want me give it to her at school?"

"Might as well, it has her homework for her next class," replied Sabine, patting him on the back, "I'll hold down the fort until you get back."

"Aye-aye, captain!" joked Aristide, giving a Navy salute and headed out the door.

* * *

"I demand you delete that photo," shrieked Chloe.

Marinette groaned, rubbing her head as Chloe and Alya kept trading verbal threats back and forth. Well not so much 'threats' on Alya's part but legal defense about her rights and her freedom of speech & print. Chloe, of course, threaten to call her father and get her arrested for 'slander' or something like that. Apparently, Alya had uploaded the photos of the victims of Fashion Disaster and one of the pictures had been of mannequin Chloe in her tacky outfit. That enraged Chloe and she practically attacked Alya when she and Marinette walked into the class.

' _Great, just what I need: a headache after a nap_ ,' groaned Marinette, lowering her head on the desk.

"I don't know why you're making such a big deal of this, I was just posting images of the victims of the lasted akuma attack," argued Alya, crossing her arms, "Beside, don't you love being the 'helpless victim?'"

"That photo is an attack on my character!" Chloe yelled, "I can't have anyone seeing me in those hideous outfit! Unlike you, my reputation is at stake! Do you know how people will think of me?!"

' _You mean any less than they already think of you_?' hissed Marinette in her mind, ' _And if you didn't want that photos to exist, maybe try not to turn people into akumas every six seconds_.'

Thankfully, the teacher came in just as the bell rang and scolded Chloe for being out of her seat. The instructor did a quick recap of their last lesson before telling everyone to turn in their homework assignment about the history of the French War of Religion. Bending over, Marinette went to fetch her bag before it dawned on her that she hadn't grabbed it before running out of the bakery.

"Miss Dupain-Cheng," began the instructor, appearing in front of Marinette and nearly giving her a heart attack, "Is something wrong? Do you have your assignment?"

"Uh...I seem to have forgot my backpack," stammered Marinette, "Could I go and..."

"Excuse me?" Marinette, the instructor and the rest of the class turned their head to see Aristide entering the classroom, smiling and carrying a familiar pink backpack, "Marinette, I think you forgot something."

"I know, I know, thanks, Aristide," said Marinette as Aristide handed her bag over to her.

"No problem," replied Aristide, playfully ruffling her hair, much to Marinette's displeasure, "Just don't forget next time. Oh, and you're on decorating duty after school."

"Of course I am," smirked Marinette sarcastically, "Payback for making you deliver my bag?"

"Perish the thought my dear," smiled Aristide, "I would never caused you such unnecessary trouble."

"I'm sure," Marinette scoffed, "Don't you have a line of women to attend to."

Aristide made a mock depressed face. "Indeed I do. So, with a heavy heart, I bid you _adieu_."

Marinette rolled her eyes as Aristide bowed and left the room. As she rummaged through her bag, she didn't take notice of the shock and love struck faces of most of her female classmates as they stared at the door that Aristide exited through. Pulling out her homework she smiled and handed it to her teacher. "Found it!"


	3. Curiosity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aristide's fanclub numbers are rising and a certain kitty gets mixed feelings.

Before Marinette could collect her things and leave for her next class, a well manicured hand slammed in front of her desk, spooking Marinette and almost causing her to fall out of her seat. Chloe glared down at her before pointing to the door, "Who the hell was that?!"

Marinette started in confusion. "Who?"

"Don't play dumb," she hissed, "That guy that gave you your bag."

"She means that insanely handsome guy that makes Michelangelo's _Statue of David_ look like a kid's clay art project," clarified Alya, having a bit of a blush across her face.

"You mean Aristide?" asked Marinette, "He's my dad's new assistant I've been telling you about."

"So he's at _your_ place a lot?" Chloe questioned, disgusted that such a attractive man was spending time at Marinette's home but not at her's.

"Yeah, my house is kinda on top of the bakery," replied Marinette in a deadpan voice, collecting her things and shoving them into her bag.

Throughout the entire day, Chloe and various other girls kept asking her questions concerning Aristide: where was he from, how old was he, what were his hobbies, why was he in France, what was he studying, what were his hours at the bakery, did he do personal deliveries and other questions like that. Chloe was the one that was the most relentless, almost interrogating the pigtailed girl whenever she got the chance. But by far the most asked question was:

"Is he single?" Rose asked, quite boldly.

"Uh, I'm not sure," answered Marinette. It wasn't as if she asked Aristide if he had someone, he was her father's employee.

"And he _just_ works for your dad?" Chloe asked, crossing her arms and glaring down at her, "Nothing else?"

"What's that suppose to mean?" Marinette didn't like the look Chloe was giving her.

Jukela decided to clarify, "She's questioning your relationship with him. Do you like him? Are you going to ask him out?"

"What?! No!" stated Marinette.

Chloe scoffed and flipped her hair in a haughty manner, "As if she has a chance. No way a handsome man like that would date someone like you."

Marinette's eye twitched but decided to let it go. "Aristide is like a brother to me, that's it. Plus, he's a senior in university, he's like seven years older than me."

"Age is nothing but a number," smirked Chloe, handing her bag over to Sabrina as she checked her reflection.

"Beside," said Rose, her cheeks a bright pink, "He is pretty handsome."

While the girls continued to questioned Marinette about Aristide, they didn't notice a couple of guys listening in. Nino laugh, "Geeze, the girls are going crazy about that Aristide guy."

"What else is new?" asked Max in a bored tone, "They acted the same way when Adrien transferred in."

"Oh come on, it wasn't _that_ bad," replied Adrien, scratching the back of his head.

"Yeah, it was worse," laughed Kim, "We couldn't get out of class without having to shove our way through a crowd of Adrien Agreste fangirls. We're just lucky that Aristide guy doesn't work here."

The guys laughed while Nino patted a bashful Adrien on the back. As the conversation shifted towards plans for the weekend, Adrien couldn't help but eavesdrop on the girls. Chloe continue to questioned Marinette at length about Aristide, mainly repeating the question on whether or not Aristide was seeing someone. Of course, Marinette kept repeating that she didn't know which didn't satisfy the blonde girl until she concluded to herself that he was single.

"I'll be sure to visit him at your parent's dinky little bakery," sneered Chloe, "It will be the highlight of his day to see a true beauty."

"Oh, I'm so sure," Marinette replied sarcastically.

"So does he work everyday?" Alya asked.

"Nope, he's only in Monday through Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday from 8 to 3. Though sometimes he works overtime," answered Marinette, picking up her bag, "Speaking of which, I gotta go since Aristide put me on decorating duty. You going to come, Alya?"

"Oh yeah, I'm total free," smiled Alya, picking up her stuff, "Hey, does Aristide do deliveries?"

Students started spilling out of the class and out the door. Nino and Adrien were a few feet away from Marinette and Alya who were still talking about Dupain-Cheng's new assistant with several other girls. "You know, with all the talk about the new assistant and the bakery, I'm getting pretty hungry for some sweets. Wanna grab some pastries from Marinette's bakery?" Nino offered, "I know Marinette's parents so we may get some freebies."

"Uh..." Adrien rubbed the back of his neck. Although he ADORED sweet things, especially the delicious baked goods that Marinette's parents made, he was forbade by his father and his dietitian since they were 'too fattening' and would make him 'gain too much weight.' Before he could respond, his stomach answered for him, making the blonde model blush and Nino laugh.

"I'll take that as a 'yes,'" snickered Nino, looping one arm around Adrien's neck and leading him towards the bakery.

As the duo walked towards the bakery, they couldn't help but overhear the crowd of group of girls in front of them whom were hounding Marinette and Alya. Apparently, Chloe had bragged to other female students about the 'hot baker boy' working for Marinette and how he was going to 'fall madly in love with her'. No one took that last part seriously but they were curious about the assistant and were asking Marinette about him.

Marinette sighed, "I think he has classes after work so he may not be able to hang out."

"Is he really as hot as Chloe says," asked another girl.

"He's attractive, I guess," answered Marinette pushing her way through the crowd. She was getting annoyed with all the girls asking questions about Aristide. The guy was like her brother! She did NOT want to think of him in that way, even if he was insanely good looking. Alya notice her discomfort and began pushing the designer further towards her home while trying to bat away the persistent crowd of budding fangirls.

Before Marinette reached the front of the door, she was pulled aside by none other than the very person they were talking about. "Hey, Marinette! Glad I caught you! I need to talk to you..." Aristide looked up and started at the crowd of awestruck and smitten teen girls, "Friends of your's?"

"Students from my school," replied Marinette quickly, as Aristide led her to the back entrance of the bakery and escaping the crowd of females trying to inch towards the assistant. Once inside, away from prying eyes, Marinette sighed in relief. "What's up?"

Aristide shifted from left to right, looking nervous, "I've...made a _big_ mistake."

"How big of a mistake?" asked Marinette, crossing her arms, raising an eyebrow.

"Big as in I accidently wrote the wrong address on the delivery invoice and our order of vanilla extract, powdered sugar and food color is now on the other side of town," cringed Aristide, "And I need your help to fix this before your parents kill me."

Marinette laughed, "My parents wouldn't kill you for this. It's a simple mistake, my dad has done that a few times when he first opened the bakery." It really was a simple mistake but Aristide made it sound like he had burn the kitchen down. Seriously, Aristide would feel guilty if he but too much sugar in a cake.

'Yeah...but still..." Aristide looked very guilty for making such a honest mistake, "Need your help. Please, I'm begging you!"

"What do you need me to do?" asked Marinette.

"Can you tell you parents that your need to pick up some fabric you ordered from a shop across town," begged Aristide, "We can both drive over and pick up the delivery."

"Okay," agreed Marinette, "But only if you buy me the fabric I 'ordered'."

"Deal," smiled Aristide, hugging and kissing Marinette on the top of her head, "I owe you one!"

Marinette walked towards the front where she found her parents trying to shoo out the crowd of girls from her school. "Hey dad, I ordered some fabric from a shop across town, do you mind if Aristide drives me there to pick it up?"

"Sure dear," grunted Sabine as she pushed the last of the fan girls out of the shop, "But be quick. We'll need him later today to make another cake delivery before his shift is over."

"Thanks!" called out Marinette, running towards the back entrance where Aristide was waiting, "They said 'okay' and that you have another cake delivery when you get back."

"Noted," replied Aristide, grabbing the keys to his car, "We're taking my car since both delivery cars are out."

"Got it," replied Marinette as they both exited the bakery. Thankfully the crowd of girls were still in front of the shop door so they didn't see the two exiting the building. Cutting across the street, Aristide opened his prized white Peugeot 207 coupe, a car he bought using his own money and kept spotless. Opening the passenger's side door, he made a swiping motion with his hands, "Lady's first," he spoke in a faux high-society voice.

Marinette snorted and did a mock curtsy, "Why thank you, kind sir." She hopped inside and Aristide followed in suit, getting into the driver's side and starting the engine. "So where exactly did you sent the delivery?"

"Would you believe the address I wrote was actually a fabric shop," he smiled.

"Your kidding," she laughed giving him a playful punch, "No wonder you had that 'fabric shop' story all ready. Sneaky!"

The two continued to laugh and joke a bit before Aristide pulled the car out of the parking space and headed down the road. Marinette and Aristide were so engrossed with their jokes and conversation, they didn't notice the gaggle of girls staring forlorn at the driving Peugeot and a pair of male eyes looking confused.

* * *

"Sweet ride," whistled Nino as he watched the Peugeot drive off, "Looks like one of the newer models!"

"Yeah..." Adrien said, looking a bit bother, "Is it normal to just get into a person's car like that?"

"What do you mean? Like if they're a stranger, then yeah, pretty dangerous," replied Nino, "But that guy works for Marinette's folks so I'm sure they trust him. They wouldn't just let their daughter go if they didn't trust him. Plus Marinette's a smart girl."

"Oh, okay," whispered Adrien, his brow furrowed.

"Come on!" Nino yanked Adrien out of his thoughts and towards the bakery, "The crowd of girls are gone so we can finally get in!"

"Actually, I'm not that hungry anymore," confessed Adrien before a loud honk pierced the air, "And Gorilla's here with the car so I should get going."

Nino looked sad but smile and said, "I'll save you some treats for tomorrow. Hope you don't mind day-old pastries."

Adrien chuckled before Nathalie shouted out for him from the limo. The blonde model quickly jumped into the car and waved Nino goodbye as Gorilla drove away. Nathalie sighed as she scrolled through her tablet. "Your father wants you home to get ready for tomorrow's photoshoot. Remember, it's straight after school at the Opera Bastille. You have four outfits for the shoot so expect to be there the rest of the day."

"Great," muttered Adrien, "Will dad be there?"

"You know your father is still in Milan for Fashion Week," replied Nathalie, her stock face momentarily breaking into a sympathetic look, "But I'm sure he gives his regards."

Her response didn't really help Adrien as he just sighed and slid down his seat, "Oh course."

"Sit up straight," she ordered automatically, "Don't slouch, it'll effect your posture."

Adrien complied and the rest of the ride was spend in familiar, uncomfortable silent with the exception of the traffic outside and the tapping of Nathalie's fingers on her tablet. Once home, the blonde headed straight for his room, but not before smuggling a pain aux raisins and palm-size wheel of camembert. After shutting the door behind him, Plagg immediately popped out of his bag and went straight for the smelly cheese.

"FINALLY!" the tiny cat kwami exclaimed, spinning in the air with his 'pre-dinner snack'.

Adrien rolled his eyes as Plagg started munching on the camembert while he nibbled on his pain aux raisin. He cough at how dry it was, wishing he had some butter or something to put on it, or better yet one of the Dupain-Cheng's heavenly sweets. Speaking of the Dupain-Cheng's bakery, Adrien thought back to the new assistant, Aristide. He was...nice, Adrien guess, at least from the initial 'meeting' he had with the class. And a lot of the girls seem to flock to him, especially Marinette.

Adrien's mouth twisted into a sort of half frown half confused sort of expression. Marinette was an enigma to him. The sweet, kind girl always seem nervous and jittery around him, never able to keep eye contact with him. With Chat Noir, she was sassy, confident and brave, kinda like how she was with everyone else _except_ him. And then there's Aristide. With Aristide, she was all smiles and giggles and hugging him whenever he appeared. Heck, he could hear them joking and playing around when they were getting in his car. Sometimes he hated his heighten cat-senses.

"Hey, Plagg," spoke Adrien, "Is it normal for a girl to just get into a guy's car that she only knows recently?"

"Huh, what are you babbling about now?" asked Plagg, rather annoyed, "Is this another human problem of yours?"

"I'm just asking," replied Adrien,"Is it normal for girls to be so friendly with a guy she's only known for a short while?"

"Ugh, how should I know? Is this about that Marinette girl?" groaned Plagg, "Geeze, you're so desperate to get her to like you that you're getting jealous over other guys she's around?"

"What!? No! I'm just..." Adrien fumbled with his words.

"' _Jealous that someone new can have such a close relationship with one of the nicest girls in your class, but when it comes to you, she can't say a few words without running off_?'" finished Plagg with a snarky tone.

"I'm not jealous," laughed Adrien, "That's ridiculous. What do I have to be jealous of? Sure, I'm kinda upset that Marinette isn't as friendly with me as she is with everyone else, but that doesn't...I mean, I can't be upset with her about it. Who she befriends is her business."

' _Yet you're so_ _adamant with trying to become her friend_ ,' thought Plagg as he shoved down another piece of gooey camembert down his gullet, "You humans and your overly complex relationships with one another. This is why..."

"Yeah, yeah, ' _this is why you prefer cheese over girls_ ', I get it, Plagg," waved off Adrien, "It's just...why doesn't she act that way around me? Did I do something to upset her?"

"Well there was that gum incident when you first went to school..." started Plagg.

"I told her that it was a misunderstanding!" yelled Adrien.

"...you're 'best friends' with that mean girl that picks on her a lot and smells like rotting flowers..." Plagg recited, twitching his nose at the mention of Chloe's various perfumes.

"...Chloe has been my friend since childhood and she's not _that_ bad..." argued Adrien.

"...you don't exactly stop Chloe from picking on her, or anyone else for that matter..." continued Plagg.

"It's not like I know when she's going to pick on someone," replied Adrien, "And I always tell her to stop being mean to everyone."

"Yeah, and she _completely_ listens to you, doesn't she?" Plagg says sarcastically, "Look, if Marinette doesn't want to be friendly with you, that's her choice, not yours. You'd have better luck being her friend as Chat Noir then as Adrien."

Adrien grumbled unhappily, but then stop and smiled. "You're right, Plagg. Marinette _is_ closer to Chat Noir than she is with Adrien."

"Oh course I'm right," smiled Plagg, haughtily.

Adrien smirked as he looked up at the clock, "So why doesn't _Chat Noir_ visit her tonight?"

"Yeah sure...wait what!" Plagg stopped halfway shoving another piece of cheese in his mouth when he realize what Adrien just said."

"Plagg, CLAWS OUT!"

"Me and my big mouth...!"


	4. Visiting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chat Noir pays a visit to his favorite princess and gets a less than happy surprise at the end.

After the sun set fairly quickly, Chat Noir leaped out of his window and headed straight for the Dupain-Cheng's bakery. A Cheshire cat smile spread across his face as he hopped from rooftop to rooftop, ignoring the whining and complaining of Plagg that rang throughout his head. Thankfully, neither he nor Ladybug had patrol today so he didn't have to worry about running into his Lady and having to tell her why she was visiting a civilian at her house this late in the evening.

The air had become brisk and the street lights had already been turned on, making it a perfect night to travel across Paris and watch the scenery. And the path from Agreste mansion to Marinette's bakery always featured the best landmarks of their city, which was an added bonus for Chat. He could already smell the heavenly aroma of baked bread, cookies and a mixture of vanilla and cinnamon. Swallowing his saliva so he wouldn't be drooling, Chat Noir quietly landed on the balcony roof and knocked on the trapdoor.

Chat heard a small squeak, the scratch of a chair being pushed back, someone climbing up the ladder before the trapdoor swung open. "Chat Noir?" Marionette's head popped up from below, "What are you doing here? Is something wrong?"

"Oh no, nothing's wrong, princess," replied Chat Noir, "Just wanted to pop by and cat-ch up with my favorite civilian."

Marinette raised an eyebrow at that answer, "Well I'm fine, Chat. And I'm kinda busy."

"Busy with what?" he asked, trying to peek into her room.

' _Hasn't anyone ever told him that 'curiosity killed the cat_ ,'' thought Marinette, "With a project I'm working on. Gabriel Agreste is hosting this scholarship competition for any aspiring designers. First prize is $10,000 towards college tuition and a spot as one of his summer interns."

Adrien didn't need to be told this, he already heard all about the competition from Nathalie a few weeks ago. His father was looking for interns to work in his firm during the summer since most of his lines will be showcased in Paris's Fashion Week in early September and he needed a few talented hands to assist him. But really, Adrien suspected that his father just wanted to get an early grasped on the blooming, talented designers and make a good show for the public. After all, top designer company like Dior, Chanel and Prada had internship and scholarships, so why not Agreste?

It also wasn't a big surprise that Marinette was entering either. The week the competition was announced, the girl practically threw herself into her designs. So much so that she was oblivious to the outside world and only snapped back to reality during class and working at the bakery. He remembered Alya having to physically lead the girl to class so she didn't accidently run into walls or fall down the stairs. Heck, Chloe tried to insult her during one of her 'designing-zone' moments, but Marinette didn't even acknowledge her presence. Chloe tried a couple more times but Marinette didn't budge. It was only when Marinette ran out of paper that she looked up and notice her.

"Huh, when did you get here?" The look on Chloe's face caused several students to burst out laughing.

"Oh?" replied Chat Noir, feigning surprise, "So princess is hoping to work with the Agreste company? What's the contest about?"

"Design and construct your own clothing line," recited Marinette, having memorized the rules and guideline booklet inside and out, "Original ideas only. No rehashed, parodied, or copy-cat designs. Overused theme, such as seasons, holidays and movie-based, are NOT to be used. A minimum of 5 pieces, maximum of 10. Outside help is forbidden and will result in disqualification. Themes must be submitted ahead of time in order to avoid similar lines. Any themes that match or are similar to an earlier submission will be asked to change."

"Jeeze," whistled Chat, "Did you memorize the terms and condition?"

"...yes," Marinette, blushed.

"So~," began Chat, slipping into Marinette's room, "What's your theme?"

"Please come in," grumbled Marinette before sighing and answering, "I don't have a theme yet, still trying to think of one while I'm designing. I had several themes before but I had to drop them since they were either considered common or someone had already called it. I'm trying to get inspired but it's been difficult."

Chat Noir could tell Marinette was having a difficult time: her room was a mess! Scraps and rolls of fabric were thrown all over the place, piles of paper, both flatten and crumpled, spilled over her table, and multiple magazines pages were ripped out, pinned on the wall with post-it notes on them. ' **Too flashy** ', ' **Good fabric, avoid stripes** ', ' **Theme was plant-based, idea? inspirations?** ' where scrawled on them along green circle on certain clothing and large red Xs on the rest.

"How about a Ladybug-&-Chat Noir theme," suggested Chat, "I heard leather and polka-dots are very in this season."

"Already taken," Marinette bluntly replied, putting away several rejected designs, "Chloe, the mayor's daughter, _loudly_ proclaimed that she would be doing a Ladybug theme line."

Marinette rolled her eyes as she remembered the day the announcement came out about the Agreste competition. After the teacher finished going over the rules and guidelines for the contest, Chloe jumped up and stated that she would make the 'best' collection line because it was going to be Ladybug themed. "Ladybug is Paris's hero, so a theme about her would guarantee me the winner," Chloe bragged before ordering Sabrina to make some designs.

She didn't know _why_ Chloe wanted to enter the contest, it wasn't like she needed the money or wanted to intern for Mr. Agreste since internship pretty much meant working with no Sabrina to do it for you, but Marinette could think of a few reason. One: a fashion contest, especially one by Gabriel Agreste, would automatically mean that Marinette would enter and Chloe would use this as an opportunity to try and one-up her and/or humiliate her. Two: she would try to get back in Mr. Agreste's good grace after the Bowler-Hat incident. Three: she would use this to try and 'impress' Adrien with her 'fashion designing' skills. Ugh.

' _I guess the only good thing about it is that she won't be stealing any of my designs...again,_ ' thought Marinette, ' _Plus, Mr. Agreste already witness Chloe's underhanded tactics so he'll probably keep a close eye on her. Hopefully_."

"What about a Cat Noir theme?" asked Chat Noir, "Just because Ladybug is taken, doesn't mean I'm off limits?"

Marinette smirked, "Need something to stroke your ego, eh, kitty? Isn't that statue in the park enough for you?"

Chat Noir gave a little kitten pout, "Am I not fashionable enough?"

Unable to contain herself, Marinette burst out laughing and lightly patting Chat Noir on the head, "Oh no, kitty. You are _very_ fashionable. You should be on the runway."

"Oh, I know," bragged Chat, playing on, "Heck, I could be a model for all you know."

"Well you certainly have the ego of some model," snickered Marinette before shoving two large rolls of fabric into his arms, "Now hold this, Mr. Model. I gotta search for my sewing bag. I think it's under some of these paper."

Chat huffed as he tried to balance the bolts of fabrics while Marinette shuffled the paper on the ground. After a minute, Marinette let out a victory cheer as she held up a white and pink polka-dotted sewing bag from a mountain of fabric samples. After cleaning up her messy room, or rather trying to make it less like a tornado went through it, she help Chat Noir with the fabrics and stack them against the wall.

"Thanks," she said, "Here, have some. Consider it a thank you for your help."

Pointing to her desk, Chat Noir spotted a large plate filled with multiple pastries and little bread rolls all piled on one another. The leather-dressed feline immediately appeared next to the plate and started popping one of the miniature éclairs into his mouth and savored the rich chocolate that melted on the roof of his mouth and the fluffy cream as he bit into the sweet, choux dough.

' _So good~_ ' he moaned in his mind as he kept chowing down on the sweet treats.

"Like them?" teased Marinette as she watch half the plate disappeared behind Chat Noir's lips, "They're left overs from the assorted pastries Aristide made this afternoon."

A strawberry macaron froze halfway to Chat's mouth when he heard the name of the Dupain-Cheng's assistant. His shoulder sagged and that knotted feeling in his stomach rose up again as he put down the macaron. Suddenly, he didn't feel that hungry anymore.

"Aristide?" asked Chat Noir, trying to sound confused and not at all upset, "Who's that?"

"Oh, Aristide is my parent's new assistant for the bakery," answered Marinette, "We hired him when work got a bit too hectic and needed someone to keep everything afloat. He's still in college so this is kind of a internship/part-time job for him. He's really good at his position and everyone really likes him!"

"Yeah," murmured Chat, playing with the leftover treats rather than eating them.

"Seriously, he has his own fan-club consisting of most of the female customers that come in," chuckled Marinette, "And a few hopeful guys. But I don't think he can help it, he's such a sweetheart!"

"I bet..." muttered Chat bitterly under his breath.

' _Oh no, don't get all jealous, mopey-kitty at me_ ,' growled Plagg in his head.

' _I'm not jealous or mopey_!' argued Chat, crossing his arms. He didn't know why he felt upset with Marinette being around Aristide. I mean, the guy was like twice her age! And Marinette wasn't the type to date guys older than her. Plus, Marinette said the guy was like a brother to him so that mean there wasn't any romantic attraction right? Right?

"So..., this Aristide guy," began Chat Noir, "How long has he worked for your folks?"

"Um, I think a few weeks," replied Marinette, her voice muffled by the sewing pins in her mouth as she started fitting a mannequin with muslin, "Not really long but it feels like he's been working here for years. His incredible friendly and social. Even help dad with creating a website for the bakery and reorganized our inventory."

"Right..." drawled out Chat Noir, abandoning the plate of treats and his eyes started roaming around the room, "So...you trust this guy?"

"Of course, why wouldn't I?" Marinette answered absentmindedly, pinning another sewing pin on her mannequin. She looked back towards him and notice the remaining treats on the plate, "Hey, if you want, you can take the rest of the sweets back home with you."

"Nah, I'm good," replied Chat.

"You sure?" asked Marinette, "They're really good!"

Chat Noir didn't answer back and just sat on her chaise lounge, watching her cut then drape the muslin fabric over the dummy model until it took the form of a dress. As a young child, he was always around designers, both young and old, and since he didn't have any playmates besides Chloe he would spend the days watching them work. Unfortunately, Adrien didn't inherit his father's desire for designing clothing so he found the process of designing clothing tedious and kind of boring after a while. Yet, he watch Marinette drape fabric over the mannequin with curiosity and enjoyment.

With a flick of her wrist, Marinette finished making a sleeve for her mock dress. A snip soon after, the dress was knee-length. The way she put her heart into everything she did, especially her designs, was fascinating to him. A sparkle in her eye, a skip in her step, she just oozed joy and confidence when she was in 'the zone', as Nino puts it. Completely different from his father's designers who are either irritated or annoyed when they were doing their or his father's designs. Chat Noir didn't realize that he had spend the past half hour watching Marinette until she exclaimed, "Done!"

"Huh? What?!" blabbered Chat Noir, knocked out of his stupor.

"My template dress," She replied, pointing to the finished muslin dress, "I've decided to make my entire collection of evening wear. Maybe a mix of formal and semi-formal. I'm hoping that as I'm making the dresses a theme will pop into my head."

"I'm sure it will," smiled Chat, "You're really talented, so something will pop..."

"Marinette!" Chat nearly jumped off the chaise at the new voice yelling from below them, "Marinette! Could you spare a few minutes, I need some help with the packing."

"W-who's that?" asked Chat shakily, though he already knew the answer.

"Oh," shrugged Marinette, picking herself off the ground and made her way towards the trapdoor, "That was Aristide. He's staying over for the night since he forgot his keys and his grandparents are out of town for their anniversary. My parents offered their guest room for the night until his grandparents return in the morning."

"Mari? You there?" called out Aristide again.

"Yeah, Aristide! I'm coming," yelled back Marinette before turning to Chat Noir, "You should go, it's getting pretty late. Plus it's a school night. You can take the rest of the treats home. Goodnight!"

And with that, Marinette closed the trapdoor behind her, leaving a wide-eye, open mouth Chat Noir standing in the mess of her room. It took a couple of seconds for the frazzled brain of Chat Noir to piece together the dots of the current situation: Aristide was staying at Marinette's house. An older guy was staying at one of his female classmate's house overnight, with the Dupain-Chengs' permission.

Chat Noir's eye gave a twitch, "WHAT?!"


	5. Denial

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien takes a trip down denial.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: this is NOT a continuation of Oleanders & Belladonnas
> 
> Anyway, I would like to apologize for the delay in updates, there was an issue with my family's modem and that it wouldn't give off wifi and all the available WiFi was either weak or unsecured (I will NOT login with an unsecured network, I won't do it). Not only that, but when it was working, it's connection would drop every few hours (imaging writing a really long fic online, only to have your internet connection go down when you save. You cannot image the rages I've had these past few weeks). Not only that, but I had suffered a severe allergic reaction to some new medication and had to go to the hospital. It was really bad since I NEVER had an allergic reaction (and I thought I wasn't allergic to anything) so my entire system was shot.
> 
> But now my modem has been fixed and my allergies are clearing up so I will start updating again. Oh, I also have a question to ask, my dear readers, but I'll will put it on the end of this chapter. Anyway, enjoy the show (oh, and I'll also post GWN on Ao3):

"Dude, you okay?" Nino asked as he entered the classroom, "You look horrible."

Adrien groaned as he looked up towards his friends. He wasn't wrong, dark circles were present under his eyes and his skin had gotten a few shade lighter. Nathalie had made a huge fuss about it as she fixed his hair in the limo and straighten out his clothes so as not to 'look like a hooligan' and upset his father. She took his unkempt look and tiredness as a sign of staying up all night and threaten him with a curfew if he didn't go to bed early tonight.

"Oh, it's nothing," yawned Adrien, covering his mouth, "Just didn't sleep well last night."

Not exactly a lie, but come on! How could he tell his friend that he was having an outright anxiety attack about Marinette having an older guy staying over at her house! Was that consider normal? I mean, he was an employee of her parents so that means he was trusted and liked enough to be allowed in their house, right? I mean the Dupain-Chengs' would never allow anyone near their only daughter unless they trusted them, right? Right?

"...and Aristide was soooo nice!"

Hearing said employee's name, Adrien turned his head towards the door to see Rose and Juleka coming in with two boxes bearing the logo of the Dupain-Cheng's boulangerie. His mouth water and stomach grumbled as he smelled buttery croissants and chocolate pastries from those boxes, silently cursing himself for missing breakfast. Nino snickered and pulled out a bag of macarons and handed him a few. "You need some," he said.

"Yeah, Aristide was pretty cool," replied Juleka, setting her box in front of her, "He even made my mille-feuilles my colors!"

Juleka pulled out one of her mille-feuille to show that it was made with purple-dyed cream and icing with dark chocolate lace-décor on top. Rose squealed at the pretty pastry and pulled out her own with pink cream with blue and white icing decorating the top. She took a bit and just gushed on how it was the perfect blend of cream and puff pastry.

"He even put some strawberry slices in it knowing how much I love strawberry," Rose stated, her voice muffled from all the mille-feuilles she stuffed in her mouth, "We should go back during lunch for some more and thank Aristide."

"You visited Aristide today?" Mylene walked into class, she, too, holding a Dupain-Cheng pastry box, "He actually manage to sneak me some slices of cake despite it being the morning. The best part is he didn't even charge me for them."

"Lucky!" stated Alix. Unlike the other three girls she didn't have a box of pastry, but was finishing off an éclair, "Wish he gave me free food."

"Didn't he fix your skates for free yesterday?" teased Rose.

"Yep," replied Alix, pulling out said skates from her bag, "Tighten the wheels and fix that annoying squeaking sound it was making. It even glides smoother than it did when I bought them."

Just then, Chloe strutted through the door with Sabrina in toe. The poor redheaded girl was struggling with holding both her and Chloe's bag and two boxes of pastry boxes from, again, the Dupain-Cheng's boulangerie. "Set the boxes on _your_ side of the table," ordered Chloe, "And don't you DARE ruin my new Chanel bag! I just got it last week and I can guarantee it cost more than your house."

Sabrina nodded as she stumbled towards her seat. Chloe looked up and started to greet Adrien before noticing the boxes of pastries the other girls have. "Oh how cute, you four went to visit Aristide," sneered Chloe.

Rose quickly bowed her head, cheeks red and refusing to look up while Juleka glared at Chloe. Mylene quickly took her seat and Alix huffed at Chloe's attempt to intimidate her. "Yeah, so what?" hissed Alix.

"I just think it's cute that you're throwing yourself at Aristide," Chloe haughty replied, "You think you actually have a chance with him."

"And you do?" questioned Juleka, arms crossed.

"Of course," Chloe flipped her hair, "I'm beautiful, rich and charming, who wouldn't fall for me. Aristide would tell me how he wish he was closer to my age so we can be together. He can't help but be attracted to me. Giving me free sweets, always flirting with me,..."

"Oh yeah, Chloe," smirked Marinette as she and Alya took their seats, "Aristide constantly telling you that he was 'too busy with customers' and that he had to 'get back to work' and to 'stop loitering in the store', yeah he is _totally_ flirting with you. Next time, try not to knock the tray of cookies he just spent the morning making. I know cookie crumbs look _so_ good on you, but some people prefer to eat them."

Chloe glared at Marinette as the other girls burst out laughing before stomping towards her seat. Marinette had a self-satisfying smirk on her while Alya, laughed and rolled her eyes at Chloe who was staring daggers at them.

"Did she really do that?" giggled Alya. Her voice was low but Adrien manage to catch it.

"Yep," replied Marinette in a deadpan voice, "She was trying to show off some tacky bracelet her dad bought her and knocked a tray of madeleines out of his hands. The customer was a curator from the Grand Palais and ordered twelve dozen madeleines for a new exhibition tonight. She was, understandable, pissed and upset, so much so that she started yelling at Chloe. My mom had to calm her down before shoving Chloe out the door. Aristide was so relieved when she left."

"Ha! I bet he was," snickered Alya, "Still, he wasn't in trouble or anything."

"Nope, my parents and the curator knew it wasn't his fault," smiled Marinette, "Thankfully, my parents made extra madeleines in the back so the fallen ones were easily replaced."

"But how sad," spoke Nino, butting into the girls' conversation, "All those madeleines: wasted."

Alya lightly smacked Nino on the forehead with a newspaper she had and scolded him for listening in. Marinette and Adrien laughed before M. Bustier came in and started the lesson. Adrien tried to focus on his schoolwork, but whenever he entered his next class, people, more specifically the girls, would be talking about Aristide. Even as he passed the hall, every female within a five foot radius would say something about the Dupain-Cheng's new assistant. Whether it was how talented he is, how sweet he is, how handsome he is, honestly Adrien felt like he was going to lose it.

And, for some strange reason, he felt even worst when Marinette was the one doing it! I mean, he could understand a complement here or there, but every sentence out of Marinette's lips about Aristide was nothing but praising him. Okay, maybe that was overreacting, Marinette wasn't like the other girls who practically drooled over Aristide, but it wasn't like she could find any fault with the guy. It was almost as if the guy had no flaws!

"Geeze, you're turning into my last Chat Noir," snickered Plagg as Adrien passed another group of girls who were giggling over a box of pastries that were given to them by, who else, Aristide, "Then again, Felix was always broody. I don't think that guy had another emotion."

"It's nothing," muttered Adrien, shoving some books into his locker. His stomach grumbled for food as he pulled some bills from his wallet. He had enough to buy something to eat at the corner cafe. He could have joined Nino, Alya and Marinette for lunch but they were going to Marinette's bakery. So to avoid coming in contact with the subject of his ire, he made some excuse about being forbad from eating sweets for his next shoot.

Plagg scoffed, "Yeah, sure it is. Keep telling yourself that. What was that phrase you humans utter? ' _Denial's a river in Egypt_ ' or something? Stupid saying in my opinion. I get it's a play on words but still..."

"Denial? What am I denying?" questioned Adrien.

"That you're jealous," answered Plagg in a bored tone, "You can't stand that Aristide is so popular that Marinette prefers him over you."

"Your still on that?" Adrien sighed, "I told you, I can't control who Marinette befriends..."

"...and it drives you crazy that she's so close to this other guy and not you," Plagg cut in.

"Aristide is Marinette's parents' assistant so of course he's around her more often," replied Adrien, "And they obviously trust him enough with their daughter so he has to be trustworthy."

"Oh brother, you're still on about last night," Plagg rolled his eyes.

Adrien slammed his locker closed and started walking out of the school and towards the café. On the way, he walked passed the bakery and glanced through the windows. He couldn't spot his classmates, most likely upstairs in Marinette's living room, but he did see Aristide, chatting away with a line of customers as he packed up some sweets.

' _He's not_ that _good-looking_ ,' thought Adrien, ' _Don't know why everyone is going so ga-ga over him_.'

One French onion soup and some garlic bread later, Adrien made it back to class but found only Kim, Max and a sleeping Nathaniel. He understood that Nino wasn't here, probably still with Marinette and Alya, but usually half the class would be here. Heck, there was only a few minutes 'till M. Mendeleiev started class.

"Where is everyone?" asked Adrien.

Max scoffed, "Guess."

"Most of the girls are at the Dupain-Cheng's bakery," explained Kim, "We tried to buy some beignets and we couldn't get pass the front door."

"Half of them weren't even buying anything," said Max, "Just loitering around. Honestly, I don't see why they don't call the police to remove them. All they did was block the entrance and take up space for actual paying customers."

"Don't mind him," replied Kim, patting his friend on the back, "He's just miffed that we couldn't buy those beignets."

Just then, Alya, Marinette and Nino came bursting in, a bit ragged and out of breath. "Whoo! We made it," cheered Nino, before taking his seat next to Adrien, "Hey, dude, you missed a killer lunch by Mrs. Cheng. You seriously need to try her _char siu_ , it's like Chinese BBQ pork."

While Nino was boasting about Mrs. Cheng's food, Marinette and Alya stood in the doorway. Alya was gently pushing Marinette towards Adrien while Marinette shook her head and dug her feet into the tiled floor. She held a small pastry box in her hand with several cookies and mooncakes inside. Back at home, she had the 'brilliant' idea of giving a box of sweets to Adrien, but now, with her golden-haired crush just four feet away, she was silently cursing at herself for such a stupid and possibly humiliating idea.

"Come on," egged Alya, "Just give him the box. What do you have to lose?"

' _Oh, I don't know: how about my dignity_?!' shrieked Marinette in her mind. What if he rejects the sweets? What if he accepts and doesn't like them? What if he eats one and gets a horrible allergic reaction?! She be the cause of the end of Adrien's modeling career and Gabriel Agreste would blame her and use his connections to prevent her from ever getting a career in fashion! Chloe would of course would do everything in her power to destroy her and would get people to turn on her. And Adrien, oh god, Adrien would definitely hate her and never speak to her again...

Alya then shoved Marinette forward, causing her to nearly collide with the Nino and Adrien's table put quickly pulled herself together. "Uh, hi...A-Adrien..." stuttered Marinette, "How...was your lunch?"

"Fine," smiled Adrien which nearly made Marinette melt, "Sorry I couldn't join you at your house, my dad wants to make sure I don't eat too much sweet for tomorrow's shoot."

"Oh...I understand," squeaked Marinette, glancing down at that box. Yep, this was a bad idea.

"Well Marinette felt so bad that you missed out on a excellent lunch that she brought you something form her parents' shop," said Alya, nudging Marinette in the back.

"H-huh? O-Oh, yeah here," Marinette said, placing the box on the table.

Adrien quickly open the box and practically drooled at the sight of freshly baked cookies and mooncakes. "Wow, thanks Marinette," grinned Adrien, plucking a cookie from the box, "I know I shouldn't, but I don't mind breaking my diet for your family's baked goods."

Marinette turned bright red as Alya pulled her towards her desk, "N-no problem! I'll tell Aristide you liked them!"

Adrien froze halfway into his cookie, not even bother to smack Nino's hand as it swiped a cookie from his box. So...Aristide made these. He finished off the cookie half-heartedly and stowed the rest into his bag. At this point, he really didn't care if Plagg ate them, he just didn't want to look at them. A minute before the bell rang, the rest of the class came dashing into the room, all looking haggard and all holding boxes bearing the Dupain-Cheng bakery logo. The only one who didn't look like they ran a mile was Chloe who walked with Sabrina gasping behind her.

"We aren't late, right?" asked Rose.

"No," answered M. Mendeleiev as she walked in, "But I will issue detentions to those who aren't in there seats! And put away those boxes! I don't want to see anyone eating in my class."

The class went by as normal but Adrien still felt a rock sitting in his stomach. Eating that cookie was a bad idea, no doubt Nathalie will be upset if she finds out. Again with Aristide, where ever he went he was either facing the guy or hearing his name. It was driving him nuts! Class thankfully went by quickly, mainly due to Chloe complaining about the lab experiment they had to do and refusing to put on her safety equipment.

"I refuse!" whined Chloe, crossing her arms, "I will not put on those ridiculous goggles.'

" _Miss_ _Bourgeois_ ," hissed M. Mendeleiev, "Those goggles are for your protection. Put them on now!"

"Ugh, you expect me to put these chunky, neon green goggles on? Do I look like a walking fashion disaster," Chloe flicked her hair, hitting Sabrina in between the eyes, "Not to mention the marks they make! I will not have horrible red marks tarnishing my smooth skin!"

"Then you can expect an F for your lab assignment," growled the purple haired teacher, "Both of you!"

Chloe started to argue back, mainly threatened to call her father, until the bell rang and she simply shrugged and left the class. M. Mendeleiev glared at the retreating blonde before announcing to the class to leave their results so she could grade them. Adrien pulled off the goggles, trying to rub away the marks around his eyes before trudging towards the exit. Outside the class, Nino placed a hand on his shoulder and pulled him back.

"Okay dude, serious talk," started Nino, "What's up with you? You look like a owner who's dog just died."

Adrien winced, he _really_ didn't want to talk about his weird dislike for Aristide. How was the teen DJ going to react? Would he think Adrien was weird for being so hung up on a guy he barely knew? Would it be considered normal and he, as a homeschool kid, just didn't realize it? Or, worst, would Nino act like Plagg and think Adrien is jealous of Aristide or has some attraction towards Marinette, which he _totally_ doesn't.

"It's just...my dad double booked me with modeling gigs this weekend so I have to cancel our trip to the video arcade,"answered Adrien.

"What! Seriously?" groaned Nino, "And this was the weekend they were finally gonna unveil that new 'retro room' section of the arcade. I wanted to show you all the classics from America: Pac Man, Double Dragon, Contra!"

"Sorry, you know how my dad is," apologized Adrien. It wasn't a complete lie, his father had booked him an extra gig this weekend but is was only for the morning half of the day. But honestly, he rather risk a lost trip with his friend then trying to decode his scrambled feelings about Aristide and Marinette.

"Oh well, guess we'll have to go next weekend," sighed Nino, "But how about we head over to Dupain-Cheng's bakery and gets some eclairs?"

"Uh...well..." thankfully, Adrien was cut off when a honk from his limo saved him from making another excuse.

After bidding his friend adieu, Adrien hoped into the limo. Nathalie immediately started fussing over him after seeing the goggle marks and told him to moisturize his skin and wash with warm water before bed. "You have a shoot tomorrow and the photographer will have a fit if you come in with any marks," commented Nathalie as they got home, "So go to bed early tonight! I'll check in on you at 9pm."

"Yes Nathalie," replied Adrien as he got inside.

"And be sure to set your alarm for 7:30am so you'll have enough time to show up and get dress," continued Nathalie.

"Yes Nathalie," Adrien repeated, more monotonous.

"And don't forget to brush and floss after dinner," finished Nathalie.

"Yes Nathalie," grumbled Adrien.

Thankfully, the car ride was short so he didn't have to suffer through Nathalie's lecture for long. Once he was dismissed, he entered his room and tossed his backpack onto the ground with a thud. Plagg, who was still in the bag, unfortunately got knocked around. The tiny cat flew out of his miraculous wielder's bag with a bump and a scowl.

"Geeze thanks, getting tossed around in your backpack was so much fun," hissed Plagg sarcastically, "Really the highlight of my life."

"Sorry," mumbled Adrien, his face planted into his pillow.

Plagg rolled his eyes at his wielder. Why did he always get the emotionally awkward ones? Seriously, he was a quantum god, able to harness the power of chaos and destruction, literally the embodiment of 'bad luck' & corruption! Now he was just a glorified babysitter to an emotionally stunted pretty boy with the stubbornness of a mule. If the boy wasn't doing such a good job as Chat Noir AND feeding his cheese habit, he might have begged Master Fu to find a replacement. Maybe.

"Ugh, this again," grumbled Plagg, "Why can't you just admit you're jealous of Aristide? ' _Admitting you have a problem is the first step towards healing_ ' or something you humans keep saying about problems."

"First off, I don't have a problem," argued Adrien, "Second, and I keep telling you this, I'm NOT jealous. I just realized that Aristide staying over with Marinette's folks is probably normal."

' _Wow, he's deeper into denial than I thought_ ,' thought Plagg, "Really?"

"Yeah! Lots of intern stay overnight at their jobs, right?" Adrien answered, "I mean, my dad doesn't do that with his interns but I'm sure others do. Favorite interns or interns that are really motivated sometimes have to stay overnight at the place they work right? I mean, yeah it's weird in Marinette's case but her house and her parents' bakery are in the same building so it makes sense, right? And Nathalie sometimes stays overnight at my house when dad needs someone to watch over me when he's out of town, so Aristide is kinda like the Dupain-Cheng's 'Nathalie', so it's completely normal."

' _Yep, completely in denial_ ,' stated Plagg as he stared deadpan at Adrien.

* * *

"Okay, what's wrong with you?" questioned Ladybug, glaring back at him.

Chat Noir, utterly confused, just blinked back. "What? What did I do?"

"Well...considering the fact that I stopped you from face planting onto the Pantheon's dome, and yoyo-ing you from falling off Notre-Dame and crashing into the Arch de Triomphe TWICE in the pass four hours, I'm going to guess that you're not exactly focus on patrol tonight," stated Ladybug.

Chat groaned, he was wondering why he felt so sore all of a sudden. "Sorry, guess I'm not really focus on patrol tonight."

"You guess?" Ladybug joked lightly.

Her feline partner laughed a bit before blurting out, "Is it normal for interns to stay at their boss's house?"

"...what?"

"N...nothing, never mind," stammered Chat Noir, "Let's continue with patrol!"

Ladybug stared in confusion at her partner's retreating form but shook the weird question off and followed him. They manage to cover 2/3 of Paris before taking a break at the Viaduc des Arts. Once again, Chat wasn't paying attention to his surrounding and landed face-first into the trimmed bushes of the Promenade plantée gardens. Ladybug, winced as he landed on the bougainvillea shrub, a sharp yelp came from Chat as he pried himself from its thorny grasp.

"Here," offered Ladybug, carefully plucking the thorns from Chat's suit, "Next time, watch where you land!"

Nodding weakly, he allowed his Lady to remove the cursed brier from his leather suit. Thank god that his face was left intact, his father would have had a fit if he saw him the next morning with cuts all over his face, poor Nathalie would have been blamed and he would have been put on temporary lock-down. And Adrien did NOT want his father to start putting cameras in his room, then he'll never have privacy! Not to mention it would be harder to go Chat Noir and hide Plagg.

"Thanks," said Chat as the last thorn left his suit. He sighed as he saw the multiple tears, ignoring the angry scolding from Plagg in his head.

"Okay, seriously," began Ladybug, hands on her hips, "What is going on? Why are you so distracted? And no excuses!"

"It's nothing, really! Just some things I need to work through?" stated Chat Noir.

"Do you want some help?" Ladybug asked, "I don't want my partner getting attack by a rose bush next time we're out for patrol.

"Aww, my Lady, you _do_ care!" purred Chat, making a swooning gesture. Ladybug, however, wasn't fooled, so he sighed and continued, "I'm just...is it normal to be protective over a person you 'think' may be your friend?"

Seeing the confused look on his Lady's face, he clarified. "There's this girl in my class who I think is my friend, I don't know if we can be called friends, I mean my friend dates her friend and we kinda hang out as a group so we're closer than classmates...I think. Anyway, she's been hanging out with this guy and he's like twice her age! But he works for her parents and so he's around her a lot and he once stayed over at her house. I don't know if that...would that be considered normal?"

Ladybug looked utterly lost, mostly because she couldn't really decipher what Chat was trying to explain. "Uh...I guess it depends on the situation."

"But is it consider normal to hang out with a person twice your age that you only know through your parents?" asked Chat trying to format his questions into sensible sentences. ' _Is it normal to go into his car, just the two or them? Do employees just sleep over at their boss's house_?'

"Well if her parents trust him then maybe," replied Ladybug, trying to answer the weird question as best she could, "Unless you think the guy is shady or has bad intentions and shouldn't be trusted. Do you think this guy might hurt her?"

"Well...no," answered Chat Noir, ' _Not that I think so_...'

"Then I guess it's fine," Ladybug finished, before looking at Chat Noir with a raise eyebrow...er mask, "Are you...jealous?"

"What?! No!" exclaimed Chat, "I'm just...confused, that's all. I've been home schooled my whole life so I wasn't sure if what was happening was considered normal..."

"Oh...okay," shrugged Ladybug, "Let's take a break before we finish our patrol."

"Sure," smiled Chat.

Thankfully, the awkwardness of the questions faded away as the two walked the gardens and talked about their other lives in small snippets. Despite the wonderful moment he was sharing with his Lady, he couldn't help but drift back to Marinette and Aristide. Was it really normal for Marinette to be so close to Aristide? Was he worrying over nothing. ' _Maybe Ladybug is right_ ,' he thought, ' _Maybe I'm getting all worked up over nothing_.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And done! And only 10+ more chapters to go(yes, I have already ten other chapters, plus more to add, outlined for this fic)! Still kinda unsure about the ending though...
> 
> Now I wanted to ask you guys if I should upload another Miraculous Ladybug fic while I writing this one. I'm talking about Glass Slippers, the fic that won second place during the poll I posted. Do you think I should start uploading that one while writing Green with Envy? I'll let you all decide.
> 
> Read & Review!


	6. Nicknames

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien can't avoid the bakery forever, those he wishes he had today.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! First off, SORRY! I am so sorry about being late to update Green With Envy. For the entire month of August, I was panicking with getting my financial aid in order, taking out another loan, making the first month payment to my college, packing and shipping my stuff to my dorms, and packing my suitcase for my flight. I arrived to school on Tuesday morning (6am flight!), picked up my boxes, set my stuff up,then crashed onto the bed for pretty much the rest of the day. Wednesday, I manage to relax and write some parts of this chapter but mostly relaxing for the day. Thursday classes started and I had two classes back to back. Friday was classes and work. Worked on it again on Saturday and will hopefully post it on Sunday.
> 
> Now that I'm back at school I'm throwing myself straight back into writing! Hopefully I can do what I did last semester as post a chapter a week! Maybe more when I get up to steam with this fic. Again I'm sorry, it's just that when I'm home, I'm sluggish and lazy like when I was a kid. Anyway, wish me luck with keeping up with my writing.
> 
> Also, I found out on tumblr on a ML reference page that there was no 'back' of the Dupain-Cheng's bakery. Kinda too late to go back and change everything so let's just pretend there is a backroom where they do all the baking and packaging (kinda surprise there isn't. do they just make all the goods in their kitchen or is there a basement kitchen?). For future fics, I'll remember that there is no back room. Anyway, on with the show:

Adrien should have known he wouldn't be able to avoid the Dupain-Cheng's bakery for long, especially with Nino's insistence on buying some treats before and after school. Not that he could blame him, I mean free sweets? Who wouldn't take up on that offer? Plus, he couldn't keep making lies about why he couldn't go inside, Nino would get suspicious. And by the time the next weekend came about, he was all out of excuses.

Apparently, Nino's mother was hosting an office party and had placed an order for three dozen assorted pastries and, since the school was next to the bakery, asked her son to pick them up after classes ended. "Come on," begged Nino, "It will just take a few minutes to pick them up. Then Gorilla can drop me off at my house."

Reluctantly, Adrien agreed and the two entered the bakery. Or at least tried to. Before the blonde model could get a foot into the door, he was shoved backwards and bumped into Nino. Soon, several customers, all female, spilled out into the streets, stumbling over their feet. An irate Sabine Cheng, shoved another pair of girls out of her shop and stood in front of the door, blocking it.

"Out! And don't come back unless you are actually going to buy something!" she scolded, "Otherwise, you're loitering!"

"Uh, Mrs. Cheng," began Nino, slowly waving his hand to the angry mother.

Sabine then notice her daughter's classmates and blushed. "Oh! Hello, Nino, Adrien, please come in," the Chinese woman waved them inside, "So sorry about that, those girls have been hanging around our bakery for most of the afternoon and crowding our lobby."

Despite removing said crowd of females, the inside lobby was still fairly packed. Adrien and Nino had their backs literally against the wall as the line inside snaked around the tiny interior. Aromas of vanilla, chocolate and baked bread permeated the air, mixed with the sounds of whispering and excited giggled from the line of customers. Unsurprisingly, Aristide was at the forefront of the whole thing, manning the cash register as each customers tried to lengthen their time with him until either the customer behind them shoved them out of the way.

Like an angry cat, Adrien felt his hair stand on its end at the sight of the smiling, brunette college student as he chatted up the customers. Just as unpleasant thoughts entered his head, he quickly shook his head, trying to gain his senses back. ' _I'm NOT jealous_ ,' he argued internally, ' _I just find it weird that he's so popular with everyone_.'

"My mom made an order for some assorted pastries," spoke Nino, snapping Adrien out of his thoughts.

"Oh, yes," nodded Sabine, "We're just finishing the last batch. Gives us a couple of minutes to have them packed up."

"Great," smiled Nino, "We'll wait here."

As Sabine walked towards the backroom, Tom came into view with more boxed orders on a rolling cart. "Orders 98 to 110 are ready," Tom answered before heading back inside the backroom.

"Alright," started Aristide, picking off two white boxes, "Order number 98 and 99 to Miss Temple," he stated, handing them off to the first woman in line.

"Thank you," Miss Temple smiled sweetly, her eyes never leaving Aristide.

"Next," said Aristide, reaching for the next box.

"Oh! Wait, I think I need to order something else..." stuttered the woman.

However, she was shoved aside by another woman. "You already ordered twice and you're hogging up Aristi...I mean the line!" the angry female scolded.

"Now, now, ma'am," said Aristide, trying to calm both parties down, "There's no need for pushing and shoving, I don't want either of you getting hurt."

The two woman blushed. "Sorry..." said the other woman begrudgingly, "But she already got her order and if she wants to make another she should head to the back of the line. It's only fair, right."

Miss Temple glared at her before she, grudgingly, walked towards the end of the line. Soon, that pattern would repeat with the next customer, and the next and the next and the one right after that. Every woman, and the occasional guy, would try to lengthen their time talking with Artistide, only to be pushed out by the next impatient customer behind them. Aristide manage to keep a positive attitude on the whole thing and kept the growing line of customers from killing each other.

Those few minutes Sabine asked became an half hour and even more customers started piling into the tiny lobby, further pushing the two male teen into the wall. Sabine apologize to the two boys and told Nino that his mother's order would take a while and offered two café liégeois on the house for the inconvenience. Nino happily ate the cold coffee/ice cream dessert happily while Adrien just pushed the ice cream back and forth inside the cup until it melted into a creamy liquid.

"Nino? Adrien?" The two boys looked up to see Rose, Juleka, Aurore and Mireille waiting in line.

"Hey, Rose, Juleka," waved Nino, "You're here to pick up an order? Or are you here to see Aristide again."

"Both," blushed Rose, answering honestly.

"No use trying to hide it," smirked Juleka.

"Hi Adrien," chirped Aurore, "Fancy seeing you here!"

"Hello..." waved Mireille shyly.

Adrien waved back at the two girls, remembering them from both the Stormy Weather incident and, vaguely, at school. Despite the akuma rampage, both girls manage to get jobs at KIDZ+ station: Mireille as the weather girl and Aurore as a journalist for entertainment. Somehow, both girls manged to put aside their bitter rivalry, one that was mainly one-sided by Aurore, and made a kind of strange partnership, not really friends but rather business colleague.

"Are you here for their upcoming Lundi de Pentecôte special they have here?" smiled Aurore, inching from her spot in line to get closer to Adrien, "Aristide makes the _best_ white chocolate opera cake!"

"Yeah..." agreed Mireille, her voice barely a whisper.

"You have to try some!" the bubbly blonde offered, "Aristide is super nice and friends of Marinette get free sample. Sometimes free sweets!"

' _You're friends with Marinette_?' thought Adrien. He didn't think Aurore and Marinette ever shared a sentence with each other beside the occasional 'hi' in the hall from Marinette. They were in different grades yet, from the sound of it, many classmates were stating they were friends of Marinette. ' _Guess that explain Chloe's 'free' treats_.'

"Hey!" shouted Aurore, scaring the model out of his thoughts, pointing to a frighten girl, "You're cutting in line!"

"I am NOT!" shouted the accused female.

"Yes, you did!" ranted Aurore, pushing the girl towards the back, "Back of the line!"

Nino and Adrien shrunk back while Rose and Juleka inched forward, trying to disassociate from Aurore while Mireille tried to calm her down. Soon, a small fight broke out. Girls pushing and shoving and the line dissolved into a mob. Luckily, Sabine stormed in and restored order, shouting orders and threats or removal in both French and Mandarin before and made everyone get back into a line, their 'original place' forgotten.

"Anymore outburst and I'll close the shop for the rest of the day," threaten Sabine, glaring at the abashed females before returning to the backroom.

"Props, Mrs. Cheng," commended Aristide.

Sabine smiled before giving him a playful smack to his head. "Next time, try to control your fans."

"Sorry," replied the assistant bashfully as he turned back to the line.

"Poor dude, having all these girl fighting over him," joked Nino, turning to Adrien, "You and Aristide would get along, having such similar problems."

Adrien scoffed and playfully shoved Nino, "Funny. Really funny."

"So...are you gonna drink that or..." asked Nino, pointing to the melted remains of Adrien's café liégeois.

"Haven't you have enough sweets?" replied Adrien playfully, moving his dessert out of Nino's reach.

"Never!" cheered Nino, "You can never have too much sweets!"

"You sure about that?" joked Juleka, "Maybe Mrs. Cheng should cut back your free pastries privileges."

"Blasphemy!" cried Nino in faux horror, "How can you even say that?!"

"Fine," shrugged Juleka, a light smile on her face, "But don't blame me when you trading your jeans for a size XL sweat pants."

The two classmates joked back and forth while Adrien slowly began drinking the coffee flavored ice cream. Just then, Marinette came into view from behind the counter. The pig-tailed girl huffed as she struggled to carry two large, steaming trays of freshly baked rolls. Flour had dusted her skin, bringing out the redness in her skin from the heat of the oven. Though he'd never admit it out loud, Adrien found it kind of cute. "A little help here, Aristide," gasped Marinette, trying to balance the trays.

"Ah! There she is!" cheered Aristide, relieving Marinette of her trays, "My sweet pastry princess."

"Aristide..." Marinette's cheeks grew redder, "I told you not to call me that!"

"Why? It's cute," stated the assistant.

Despite the harmless joking, the innocent nickname cause a wave of envy and anger throughout the crowd of customers. Murmurs of bitter words and jealous chatter spilled from the mouths of several of the younger customers, while the older, more 'mature', customers kept their lips shut but letting their jealous fester in their minds. But while the customers glared at poor Marinette, Adrien was too busy choking on his drink.

Nino started patting his blonde friend on the back. "Whoa! Dude! You okay?" asked Nino in concern, "Did you swallow your drink too fast?"

Adrien coughed a couple of times and gave a weak nod, all while he was raging in his mind. How DARE Aristide call Marinette that?! 'Princess' was HIS nickname for Marinette! Why was he using it?! I mean, Marinette knew that he, well 'Chat Noir', called her 'princess', that was his nickname for her, so why was she letting Aristide call her that?! Wasn't there some kind of unwritten guy code or something about using another guy's nickname for a girl? Maybe he should ask Nino about that...

"Hey Marinette!" waved Rose, flailing her arm in the air.

"Hey Rose, Juleka," smiled Marinette, exiting out of the counter and walking towards them, "What's up?"

"Nothing, we've just stopping by for some pastries," smiled Juleka.

"Translation," began Nino, "They wanted an excuse to ogle at Aristide."

Marinette laughed as Juleka punched Nino in the arm. "Wrong! Tonight is 'movie night' at Rose's house," replied Juleka, "We want to pick up some sweets to snack on while we watch the films."

"Tonight's genre is romance," Rose sighed wistfully, "We're watching classics like The Story of Adele H., Amélie, Jules and Jim...you should come join us, Marinette! We almost never spend time with you."

"Sure," agreed Marinette, "I'll just have to check with my parents and I'll head over."

"Speaking of sweets," interjected Nino, "Marinette, do you mind checking on an order my mom put in? Your mom said that they were making the last batch and I can't keep Mr. Model here for long."

"Oh! H-hi Adrien," stuttered Marinette, noticing that Adrien was behind Nino, "I didn't see you there. Not that you're not noticeable or anything! It's just...um...you're helping Nino with his delivery?"

"Yeah," smiled Adrien, "Nino needed an extra hand and his mom needed someone to make sure he wasn't going to eat half of the pastries before he got home."

"Hey!" exclaimed Nino.

Marinette giggled before turning bright red when she noticed that Adrien's eyes were on her. "So...uh, do you want...can I get you a snack or..."

"Friends of yours, princess?" Marinette practically jumped a foot into the air as Aristide suddenly appeared behind her.

" _Mon Dieu_! Aristide! Don't sneak up on me like that!" scolded Marinette, "And don't call me, princess."

"Okay, okay," relented Aristide, "No more 'princess'. Didn't know why you hate the name."

"I don't hate being called princess. It's just that one of my friends call me that and it sounds weird when you say it," admitted Marinette.

Adrien felt a small flutter in his chest when she said that.

"Ah! I see," said Aristide, "I get it. Well, I guess I just have to call you something else, like 'queenie' or 'sugar' or 'cookie.'"

"Please don't," Marinette rolled her eyes as she followed him towards the front of the counter where to crowd was growing dangerously agitated.

"Hmf! Why does _she_ get a nickname?" sneered Aurore.

"Because he's her parent's employee and they constantly work together," answered Juleka.

"Plus, they look so cute together!" gushed Rose, "They make an adorable brother-sister pair."

Aurore huffed and went back to protecting her place in line while the other girls started talking to one another and to Nino. Adrien, unfortunately, leaned back against the wall, his drink tossed into the trash can, had to wait another ten minutes before Nino finally got his mother's order. All the while, Adrien watched from the corner of his eye as Marinette and Aristide would go back and forth, joking and exchanging playful banter, similar to how he and Ladybug would do during their patrol and battles. It wasn't jealously, Adrien tried to rationalize, merely him trying to look out for a friend.

Though he never understood why he felt the sudden urge to punch something.

* * *

"He called her princess!" ranted Adrien, pacing back and forth in the middle of his room, "Can you believe it?!"

Plagg groaned as he laid on Adrien's pillow. He took back his previous statement, this kid was WORSE than Felix. At least Felix hid his emotions, this one expressed everything! "Yes, yes, I heard you for the FIFTH time. Again, so what if some other guy calls her princess? It's not like they're dating or anything."

"I KNOW, but isn't it considered rude to call a girl by another guy's nickname or something?" asked Adrien.

"Yeah, if they were DATING!" exacerbated Plagg, "And the last time I check, neither you nor that baker guy are dating Marinette. So quit whining and pacing, I'm trying to sleep!"

Adrien yanked Plagg up by the tail, much to the cat kwami's chagrin. "This is serious, Plagg!"

"How is this serious?!" asked Plagg, "Huh! How is some guy that twice her age giving her a pet name serious? I mean, it sound creepy if he was a stranger, but he's just an employee and they get along. Can't you just admit you're jealous and get over it?"

"I am NOT jealous," denied Adrien, "I love Ladybug! I'm just trying to look out for Marinette! I mean, what if Aristide is someone dangerous and tries to hurt Marinette?"

"I would hope he wasn't that stupid enough to attack his employers' daughter who's parents have all his personal information that they could pass off to the police at any time if he even thinks about doing something towards their kid," answered Plagg, "Plus, have you seen her parents? Her dad looks like he could crush a guy with a bear hug and her mother...well, anyone that can handle a group of rabid fan girls with nothing but a broom and her fists is someone to be afraid of."

"Well, yeah, but...," argued Adrien, but was cut off when he heard the jiggling of his doorknob.

Immediately, Plagg flew towards the nearest hiding place, under Adrien's bed, as Nathalie stepped inside. She swept the room with her eyes before she turned to Adrien. "Who were you talking to?" she asked, confused.

"Huh?" replied Adrien dumbfounded before realizing that she had probably heard him arguing with Plagg, "Oh! I was...um, arguing with Nino over Skype."

Nathalie raised an eyebrow and turned to the computer. It was on and one of the windows was on the Skype homepage so thankfully she bought it. "Well, you father wanted me to inform you that you have a photo shoot in the morning followed by a meeting with one of the photographers from Vogue about a spreadsheet with Camille Hurel. Then you have a fitting on Sunday, followed by a practice run for your father's Spring collection."

Adrien groaned as Nathalie handed him the schedule for the weekend. Skimming through the pages, he realized that he would have to cancel on Nino again. When Nathalie left, he tossed the schedule onto his bed before landing face first into it. Plagg popped out from under it, agitated from the sudden movement of the mattress, and circled above Adrien.

"Guess that means you'll be neck deep in picky photographers and handsy models again," stated Plagg, "Which means I'll be stuck in your bag for the next 12 hours."

"I'll pack extra camembert," moaned Adrien, his voice muffed by his mattress.

"On the bright side, at least you'll have something to take your mind off this Aristide-dilemma," snickered Plagg.

"It's not a 'dilemma' and it's not 'jealousy,'" hissed Adrien, "It's...um, protectiveness...yeah, that's it."

Plagg sighed and flew towards the tiny fridge Adrien kept in his room filled with various cheeses for him. Adrien bought it after he was tired of sneaking cheeses out of his kitchen and lying to the chefs about what happen to their missing wheels of camembert, brie and Munster. As Plagg started munching on his precious cheese, he couldn't help to think back on all of his previous wielders when they went through their 'Jealous Period.'

Yes, nearly every one of his Chat Noirs went through a phase of being extremely jealous. Blame it on natural feline territorial behavior or mid-pubescent hormones, whatever the reason, Chat Noirs went through these boughs of jealousy when they fear someone they care for is involved. Though most of the time, the jealousy stems from someone trying to 'steal' their Ladybugs. Amon, his Egyptian Chat Noir, had accidentally destroyed the Sphinx's nose with his Cataclysm when a rival suitor tried courting his beloved Monifa, the Egyptian Ladybug. Another incident involved a female Chat Noir, Regina, who caused several earthquakes in the Victorian Era when her Ladybug, Felicia, had been forced into an arranged marriage with Regina's elder brother. That little 'jealousy phase' lasted over twenty years!

' _I can only hope his jealousy phase doesn't end with another 'natural' disaster_ ,' thought Plagg, grabbing another slice of Brie, ' _I'm tired of getting chewed out by Tikki and Wayzz_.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaand DONE! Whoo, that took way longer than it needed to. Much apologizes! And it's Monday so I failed to keep my promise to myself to post this chapter by Sunday. My bad, the computer labs at my campus closed early since school had just started. Thanks to all my readers and reviews for sticking by me when I was going through my hiatus this summer but I'm back and ready as ever to work! I'll get started on ch.7 today. Also, PM if you see any errors in my chapter. Do not email me about being proof readers because I have a very frazzled schedule and I don't want to pester anyone with this. No proof readers right now.
> 
> Read & Review!


	7. Moping

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Chat makes a late night visit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I live! ~ Mushu  
> Sorry, I couldn't resist. Anyway, hi everyone! So sorry about my hiatus, I never meant to leave so suddenly and without a warning. A lot of school related study happened that I'll explain at the end. But for now, enjoy!

Marinette yelped as a loud crash echoed through her quiet bedroom, causing her to drop several bobby pins onto the floor. Growling, she carefully sidestepped the pins and climbed up to her bed. ' _It's 1:15 in the morning!_ ' Marinette grumbled in her thoughts as she went to open her trap door, _'It better be a very clumsy and heavy pigeon. If not, Chat Noir better have a good reason for coming by this late_!'

"Tikki, hide," whispered Marinette, watching from the corner of her eye as her kwami ducked behind her computer monitor.

Peeking through the trap door, Marinette suppressed a groan as she spotted a moaning Chat Noir on top of broken pottery, spilled soil and crumpled seedlings. "You're paying for those," she stated as she pushed open the door and climbed out.

"Sorry," moaned Chat Noir as he pushed himself up, brushing the dirt off his suit, "I misstep when I jumped."

"I thought cats were supposed to land on their feet," joked Marinette, grabbing the nearby broom and started sweeping up the mess.

"I do!...just not today," replied Chat sheepishly.

Marinette hmmed before turning to Chat Noir. "You know it's a school night, right?" she asked, a bit peeved that he's visiting her this late, "It's past midnight! Shouldn't you be in bed too?"

"Shouldn't you be?" Char fired back in a singsong tone.

"I'm working," Marinette replied, pointing down to her makeshift work space.

"What a consequence, so am I!" Chat Noir smiled.

Marinette groaned before she noticed something wrong with him. Even under the black mask, she could still see the dark rings under his bloodshot eyes. His posture showed a bit of fatigue as he hunched over and slightly swayed on his feet. "Are you okay?" Marinette asked, "You seem tired."

"Yeah..." began Chat, "It's been a busy day."

'Busy' was an understatement: two back-to-back photoshoots, a fashion show rehearsal, another magazine fitting and a late-night tutoring session to make up for his previous missed lessons. Adrien was practically dead on his feet, but he just had to get out of the house, even if it was for a few minutes. And it was merely a coincidence that he arrived at Marinette's house.

Yep, complete coincidence!

"Maybe you should call it a night," offered Marinette.

"No, no! I'm fine," state Chat, holding up his hands, "Just needed some air. I've been cooped up in my home for the past couple of days."

"Still you look like you're dead on your feet," Marinette swept the mess into a nearby corner to toss out later, "I really think you should at least head back home. The last thing you need is to fall asleep on some random rooftop."

"I won't, I just wanted to visit you," Chat smiled.

"...at 1 am?" Marinette asked in a deadpan voice.

"I knew you'd be up," said Chat.

Marinette crossed her arms at that, "Uh-huh. And how did you know I would be up this late?"

"Because you're usually up all night if you have a project," replied Chat.

' _...I would said that's creepy how he knows that...but given how often he pops up, it shouldn't be all that surprising_ ,' thought Marinette. "Still, you look like you're going to pass out, go home."

"Awe, don't be so mean!" whined Chat, "I came all this way to see you!"

"It couldn't have been earlier?" asked Marinette, tapping her feet.

Chat rubbed his head, "I...kinda fell asleep when I got back from...my job."

Marinette yawned loudly, "Chat, look...it's late, can't we do this tomorrow?"

"Come on, just for a few minutes," begged Chat, "Please~!

Huffing, Marinette looked down at her room. Her dress sample is nearly done, just a few more stitches before she could have a form pattern for her second outfit. And, realistically, she wasn't going to go to bed for maybe another hour...

"Fine," answered Marinette, "You can stay for a few minutes."

"Great!" Chat exclaimed, climb into the room.

"A few minutes!" she repeated, "And watch the bed! I don't want dirt on my blankets!"

Thankfully, Chat slipped in without touching her bed and instead landed on her floor. Honestly, her partner acted more and more cat-like every day. Heck, he's practically one of those stray cats that are always begging to be let inside! He already made a home on her lounge and been snacking away at her treats, maybe she should just invest in a collar with a tag that reads: IF LOST PLEASE RETURN TO MARINETTE. ' _Or Ladybug_ ,' thought Marinette, ' _I rather not have any rumors about Chat Noir and me going around. Alya already thinks I have a 'thing' for him with how much I defend him in topics_.'

With how popular Ladybug is, most people forget that she has a partner, except, of course, Marinette. So Marinette always tries to bring mention of Chat Noir into Alya's rambling topics of Ladybug and his heroics. Adding things like 'yeah, Ladybug and Chat Noir really saved the day...' or 'those kids would have been hurt if Chat hadn't grabbed them in time' and little things like that. Of course, things like that only made Alya suspect that Marinette might have a crush on Chat Noir, which was RIDICULOUS! Adrien was, is, the love of her life, the apple of her eye, her knight in shining armor and all those romantic sayings. Chat Noir was just her partner, her best friend, their relationship was completely platonic. Even if Chat had a little crush on her alter-ego, that would pass soon enough and he'll find another girl to crush on.

While Marinette was lost in thought, Chat Noir took the opportunity to examine her room. It was a lot more organized since the last time he came by; no randomly tossed fabric or crumpled up drawings were littering the ground, though he did see that some pins had spilled around a mannequin. Her wall was a bit more barren with less drawings pinned on them and her fabric rolls were neatly stacked near her desk. "You finally decided on a theme?"

"Huh? What?" she asked, kind of dazed from her daydreaming.

"Your collection, for Gabriel Agreste's scholarship thingy," he clarified, pointing to the almost finish linen dress.

"Oh yeah, kind of," Marinette replied, climbing down her bed, "I'm scraping my original theme and starting over. It was too boring and I lost interest in it."

"So, what are you going to do now?" Chat asked.

"Well, when I was going through my old designs, I actually came across some of my old lacework from last year," she explained.

"Lacework?" asked Chat, a bit confused.

"You know, the lace trim and lace pattern on clothing," Marinette spoke, "I used to make my own lace patterns a few years back when I was experimenting with embroidery and needlepoint."

Chat Noir snickered at that last part. "Needlepoint?"

"Don't laugh," Marinette glared and pointed at him, "It helped me create my custom signatures for my designs."

An image of a bowler hat and an upside-down hidden signature flashed across his mind. "Ah, that makes sense. So you got any ideas?" Chat asked, picking up a ball of light blue yarn.

"A few," revealed Marinette, "One is having the dresses resemble or mimic popular Parisian flowers. Another is animal themed, but I fear that may be a bit tacky. Or maybe I'll do a modern take on time periods like Rococo or Baroque. I'm kind of working as I go. Thankfully, the submission deadline for theme ideas is still two weeks away so I still have time to decide on one."

"Cool," he said glancing at the new sketches that were pinned to the wall, "Though my 'Chat Noir' theme still sounds like a better idea."

"How modest, kitty," replied Marinette, sarcastically.

"Well whatever theme you pick, I'm sure the result would be incredible," smiled Chat.

Marinette blushed, "Thanks for the compliment, but I need more than praise to win. I'm going up against pretty skilled designers, some from universities and grandes ecoles, all clawing and biting for a chance at an internship with Mr. Agreste."

"I'm sure you'll get it."

"I can only hope," Marinette carefully bend down to pick up all the falling bobby pins from the ground, twenty-eight in total. "Anyway, I need to finish this linen sample so I can start looking at new fabric tomorrow. Can I trust you to sit quietly and not be 'catty'?

Chat Noir froze before smiling,. "Did you just make a pun?"

Rolling her eyes, the pigtailed girl shook her head as she dived back into her work. Chat laughed before laying back on Marinette's chaise. As she leaned back, he accidently knocked over a basket of yarn. He muttered a 'sorry' before scooping up the balls back into the basket. A few seconds afterwards, he decided to play with of the ball of yarn by throwing it in the air and catching it. He wondered if he she get a few balls of yarn back for his room, would Plagg play with them like a normal cat?

" _Please~,"_ Plagg drawled in his head, " _I'm powerful god of destruction, not a house cat_!"

"So..." drawled Chat Noir, his yarn-playing turned into more of him lightly flicking the ball back and forth on the lounge, "Is he here?"

Marinette stopped mid stitch and looked at him in confusion, an eyebrow raised. He? Who was 'he?'

"That...um, guy that was staying over the last time I visited?" clarified Chat Noir.

"Huh? Oh, you mean Aristide! No, he's at his own house," replied Marinette, "I made him a key ring so he wouldn't forget his house keys again. Nothing worse for a college student to be locked out of his own house."

"Uh huh," murmured Chat.

"Why do you ask?" questioned Marinette, looking up from her work.

"No reason," lied Chat Noir, tossing the ball of yarn onto the ground, "I hear he calls you 'princess', too. Like me..."

"It's just a nickname he gave me," replied the pigtailed girl, "I was humming Whistle While You Work during one of the closing shifts and he made a Snow White joke and started calling me princess."

"...I don't like it," stated Chat Noir, "I thought only I could call you that."

"You do, that's why I asked him to stop," she answered, side-glancing at the leather suit-wearing boy, "It was strange being called 'princess' by someone other than you."

"...as long as he doesn't call you princess, it's fine," ended Chat, shifting his weight on the lounge.

Marinette looked bewildered by Chat Noir's attitude. 'That was...weird,' she thought, 'How did he know that Aristide called me 'princess'?'

Strange as it was, Marinette brushed it off and went back to fixing a stitch along the hem, the deadline date, while weeks away, still looming over her thoughts. Chat Noir sunk back into his seat, the awkwardness in the air was palpable. He didn't know why he even brought Aristide name up in the first place! All he wanted was to spend time with Marinette, and he couldn't well do that as Adrien, what with him being out of school for the last two days thanks to his father's photo shoots and Marinette running away from him before he even speaks. Chat Noir was the only side of him that Marinette had no problem with and now he had to mess that up too! Why did he even bring up the nickname thing anyway!?

"So how's school?" asked Chat Noir, trying to make small talk to break the awkward tense in the air.

' _Well...I humiliated myself by tripping in front of the class, got picked on by Chloe, barely passed my science test and got my favorite shoes soaked in muddy water_ ,' thought Marinette bitterly. For someone who was supposed to be Miraculous wielder of good luck, she seems to possess an uncanny amount of bad luck in her civilian life.

"Eh, not so great but I'll live," answered Marinette, not looking up from her work, "Still trying to keep my grades up, avoiding trouble and listening to Alya ramble on about theories from her Ladyblog."

"Still trying to figure out me and My Lady's identities?" grinned Chat.

"I'm pretty she that she counts that as her job," smiled Marinette, "And Nino and I have become her unwilling assistants."

Chat Noir laughed about before asking, "What about the bakery? Still making amazing, melt-in-your-mouth pastries."

"The bakery's been doing pretty good," replied Marinette, "My dad is thinking about expanding his bakery practice online with overseas shipping. Though he may need to hire more workers and look at shipping prices going anywhere out of Europe."

"Great, so everything's running smoothly?"

Marinette nodded. "Aristide is helping my dad sort out his choices. His father works for a shipping company so he understands how much it would cost to ship a package to, let's say, America and what would be the best method to preserve the goods. It's amazing how much Aristide knows about the business. Heck, I wouldn't be surprise if he ended up opening up a while chain of restaurants with his luck and skill."

Aristide, Chat growled, why did he have to come up again?! Couldn't he go a day without someone mentioning the guy?!

" _You're the one who brought him up in the first place, genius_ ," stated Plagg sarcastically.

Marinette didn't notice the sour look Chat Noir had on his face as she was too busy trying to pin down a particularly tricky stitch. "He's been such a trooper since he's been hired! If he wasn't already planning on opening his own restaurant in Finland, my dad would hire him a manager position."

' _Exactly how long has he been working for the Dupain-Chengs? Like over a month? And yet everyone keeps talking about him like he's God's gift_!" Adrien felt his eye twitch, "That's nice."

"Yeah...hey, do you mind passing that strip of linen you've sitting on to me?" asked Marinette, pointing to said strip of linen.

Chat didn't replied as he passed the scrap of linen to Marinette, just sat silently and stared ahead into the wall in front of him. Why, oh why was this bothering him?! Why did he feel such anger towards a guy who he barely knew? Of course Plagg kept going off in his head about jealousy but that was ridiculous, Marinette was his friend and their 'relationship' was strictly platonic.

Yeah, he was just watching out for a friend.

Not jealousy.

Cat Noir shoved himself backwards into the chaise lounge, hard. That was a mistake as he slammed into a particularly sore part of his back, causing him to hiss out loud and nearly rip apart the yarn. Marinette head shot up towards him, partially startled by the noise. â€œDoes your back still hurt? You did take a hard hit from that akuma."

"Huh? Oh yeah," Chat remembered the akuma he and Ladybug fought this morning: Heavy Hitter, he thinks. A famous basque pelota player who had been forced into early retirement due to an injury he had suffered from a rival player and an easy target for an akuma. The guy was relentless, chucking flaming softballs at people and using his paleta as a club. Chat Noir made the mistake of trying to tackle the man but was swatted away, his back taking a hard hit. Thank god for Adrien that the attack was lessen by his suit and the bruising was minimal.

God help him if he's father ever found out. He would never be able to leave the house again!

"Do you want an ice bag?" asked Marinette, getting up from the floor.

"Nah, I don't want to be a hassle," said Chat Noir.

"Too late..." smirked Marinette as she tiptoed down the stairs to the kitchen to fetch the ice bag from the fridge before coming back, "Here, be careful not to let the condensation wet my chaise or pillows."

"I'll try," Chat smiled as he pressed the ice against his sore back.

"You really should invest in some padding for your suit," commented Marinette, "Or try not to tackle akumas that are using heavy equipment."

"You saw, huh?" remarked Chat.

"Just from Alya's video," responded Marinette, "She still doesn't listen to me about not getting close to the action."

"But that's were the fun is," Chat Noir purred."

"Yeah~ cause it looked like you had lots of fun," Marinette pointed to his back.

"Guilty as charge," state Chat sheepishly.

"Seriously, you should take better care of yourself," stated Marinette, "The last thing you want is a visit to the hospital emergency room."

' _Yeah, Dad would LOVE that_ ,' thought Adrien before replying, "I can't make any promises, princess, but I'll try. You know the perils of being a superhero."

' _Trust me, I know_ ,' thought Marinette, before walking to her mannequin and carefully removing her linen proof dress, "Aaand done! Finally!"

She draped the linen dress over her chair before she started cleaning up her mess of a work space. ' _Two down_ , _only six more to go_ ,' thought Marinette.

Deciding to get a head start on her next dress, Marinette went to her roll of linen and started cutting a yard of the fabric. "You do realize that you can't stay here for long," stated Marinette, not looking up from her work.

"Huh," murmured Cat, "Why not?"

"Like I said, I have school in the morning," answered Marinette, carrying the folded cut of linen to her table, "Followed by a afternoon shift at the bakery. Plus, I don't want to explain to my mother why one of Paris's superhero is sleeping in my room."

"How scandalous," joked Chat Noir.

"Please, don't flatter yourself," Marinette shot back, "Good cats sleep on the floor."

Chat Noir smirked, "And if I'm not a good chat?"

"Then you can sleep outside," Marinette answered with a straight face, pointing to the window.

"Ouch, mean!" pouted Chat as he lay on his back on the lounge, his head, hanging off the edge.

"I mean it," stated Marinette, "We both, don't deny it, have school in the morning and I don't want to wake up 30 minutes late and be dead on my feet. As if Chloe didn't pick on me enough when I'm fully charged. Plus, I plan on spending time with Alya after work.

"Ah, out for another of her Ladybug hunts?" smiled Chat Noir, "Going to stake out the city for any akuma-action?"

"Nope, Alya is going to be my mannequin for the day," smirked Marinette, "Payback for all those sleepless Ladybug researching and website editing she made me do last week."

"What about me?" pouted Chat Noir, "Don't you need a male model?"

"Sorry kitty," stated Marinette, "But I can't see you as model material."

"Why? Don't you think I'm pretty?" He made a dramatic model pose which cause Marinette to burst out laughing.

"Oh yes, Chat, you're very pretty," joked Marinette, "But honestly, I really need to be serious about this collection. Mr. Agreste is a very hardnosed designer and is really tough to impress. He wants everything to be perfect."

"Don't I know that," muttered Chat Noir.

"I appreciate the help, Chat, but I need to be focus," asserted Marinette, pulling out some pre-made pattern pieces and started pinning them on the linen.

Chat Noir hummed and sunk back down into the seat. Well...this wasn't what he was hoping when he came by to visit. Honestly, he was hoping the two of them could just hang out in her room, eating leftover sweets and hear her talk about how her day was. Spending the last two days in between dressing rooms and photo shoots, he was ready to tear his hair if he had so much as think about fashion! Chat internally sighed, really he shouldn't be upset at Marinette, she wasn't expected to entertain him every time he decided to pop in and she really wanted that internship with his father.

His attention went back to the ball of yarn he was playing with. Somehow, his claws had gotten tangled into the fuzzy string and he tried to unravel them, without tearing the strings. Unfortunate, that's to his cat-like nature, all Chat Noir manage to do was further entangle not only his hands but his forearm in a blob of wrapped yarn.

Chat growled in annoyance, forgoing his initial plan or not destroying the yarn, he tried viciously to claw at them. But the cursed devil thread seemed to have mind of it's own and looped around his fingers and wrists until the ball became a big mess of tangled. Fed up, Chat Noir just tossed the blob blindly across the room...

"Hey!" Marinette shouted as the mess of yarn fell on her head. "Chat!"

"Whoops!" replied Chat sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head," Sorry."

"Maybe you should call it a night, kitty," stated Marinette, pulling the yarn strand from her head.

"Aww, come on, princess," Chat gave those sad kitten eyes, "I said I was sorry. Plus I traveled all across Paris just to see you!"

"Which, for you, takes only five minutes," Marinette rolled her eyes, turning towards Chat Noir, "Why don't you go visit some of your other fans? Like Alya or Chloe? Why me?"

"Because you're my favorite!" grinned Chat, "Plus, Alya is pretty intense when it comes to questioning about me and My Lady and Chloe...she prefers Ladybug."

"I know...¦" muttered Marinette, remember the last dozen times she had to save the spoiled blonde from an akuma that SHE caused before being pulled into a flash-blinding selfie with her. She hated seeing all those #MeWithMyBesties photos of Ladybug and Chloe all over social media.

"And besides," chirped Chat Noir, "You're sooo much fun!"

"Glad to know I can amuse you," muttered the pigtail designer, "Look, Chat I can't..."

"What's that?" Chat Noir pointed a clawed finger behind her.

Marinette frowned and turned to the where he was pointed it as saw that it was just the section of wall above her cork board that she filled with pictures of her friends and families. Nothing really that different, except she, thankfully, had the forethought to remove the dozen of magazine images of Adrien. "What's wrong?" asked Marinette, trying to see what the issue was. What one of the images damaged? Did Manon draw on the walls again?

"That picture," muttered Chat Noir, "The top one.

"Huh?" Marinette looked up at spotted the picture he was referring to: it was a recently taken picture of her and Aristide. Aristide had his arm around her shoulder while she held a peace sign, both of them stood in front of a beautiful decorated opera cake they made. It was taken just a few days ago when she and the workers had some leftovers sweets and started goofing around.

"What's wrong with it?" Marinette asked, looking to see if there was any crayon marks or printing error on it.

"I...I've never seen it," stuttered Chat Noir.

"Uh...yeah, it was taken two days ago," replied Marinette, "During a break. One of the employees had a camera with her and started taking photos. There are others."

"Oh..." Chat Noir zipped his lip and went quiet, pushing himself deep into the lounge, trying to merge with it. "Do you always have pictures of your parents' employee's on your wall?"

"Just the ones that I like," stated Marinette.

Suddenly, the clock in Marinette's room chimed 2 am spooking the two teens. "Shoot! Okay, I need to go to bed and you need to go home!" replied Marinette, shoving her things haphazardly into the corner, "Like, right now!"

"Wha-but I just got here," complained Chat Noir.

"Chat, I don't have time to argue," argued Marinette, "I promised my parents to work a morning shift and it won't help if I'm falling asleep on the job. Beside, don't you have plans tomorrow?"

' _Yeah, but they're not MY plans_ ,' thought Adrien as he remembered the list of things Nathalie rambled off before sending him off to bed. Morning brunch with the Mayor & Chloe, fencing lessons that will last until 1 pm, a late lunch at home, a meeting with the photographer to go over prints, and, to wrap things up, Chinese lessons followed by dinner then off to bed.

"Come on, Chaton!" Marinette pushed Chat Noir towards the stairs, "This is no time for daydreaming. I really need to get to bed, it's late enough as it is."

Chat stumbled onto the roof, the bells of Notre Dame echoed fainted in the air. He rubbed his arms as it was pretty cold and windy, causing his hair to blow in the wind. Marinette followed closely behind, probably to make sure Chat didn't sneak back in, she knew how cats were. She shivered too and started rubbing her arms.

"Ugh, so cold," shivered Marinette, "Seriously, you should head out before it gets too late."

"Yeah..." Chat Noir trailed off before blurting how, "Why don't I crash here for the night?"

"What?!" gasped a shock Marinette.

"Wha-" began Chat Noir."

"No way, Chat," barked Marinette, "I'm not letting you stay in my room!"

"Wh-why?" asked Chat Noir, still trying to process why he asked that or why he was still talking.

"Really, Chat? I told it's inappropriate! Second, I don't know who you really are. Three, if your ring runs out of juice it'll spell trouble for both of us. And four, I will NOT explain to my parents why one of Paris' heroes is sleeping in my room."

"...Marinette?" Both Chat Noir and Marinette jumped at the sound of Sabine's muffed voice through her daughter's trap door. "Are you still awake?"

"Go!" Marinette whispered, "Now!"

"But..." argued Chat Noir.

"You want to explain to my mom why you're here?" asked Marinette, "You have to go!"

Chat Noir really couldn't argue against that. ' _But she doesn't mind Aristide staying over_ ,' that little voice in his head hissed.

' _I'm pretty sure that he wasn't sleeping in Marinette's room_ ,' groaned Plagg, his voice echoing in his head, ' _Quit stalling and get back to the goddamn house! I'm running out of juice and I doubt that you have the energy to run back_!'

Just as Plagg finished screaming, his ring started going off as he was down to his last paw. He quickly scrambled onto his feet, leaping onto the balcony railing. "You're right, sorry about that. Apologies, princess. Goodnight!" apologize Chat, rubbing his head sheepishly before leaping into the sky and racing across rooftops. Marinette held back until she was sure Chat Noir was out of sight before sliding back into her room.

"Well that was weird," muttered Marinette, shutting the roof door.

Marinette quickly hopped down just as her mom peeked her head through the door. Thankfully, she had put away her stuff so her mother didn't accuse her of working late. "Sweetie, I thought you had gone to bed. You have school in the morning!"

"Sorry," apologize Marinette, "But a very large _cat_ got onto the roof and knocked over some of my potted plants. I was trying to shoo it away."

"Not again," muttered Sabine, "Well...we'll clean it up tomorrow. But please, go back to bed."

"Yes, mom," yawned Marinette as her mother exited her room.

"You shouldn't have been so pushy," remarked Tikki, leaving her hiding place.

"Well what else could I do? He didn't want to leave?!" exclaimed Marinette, "I can't have one of Paris' heroes staying in my room! It would be really awkward! Plus, how am I going to explain this to my parents if they barge in? Or Alya, god forbid, she decided to come over early!"

"Calm down, Marinette," Tikki said, "I'm just saying that you shouldn't be so defensive against Chat Noir."

"Who comes over at one in morning?" yawned Marinette and slipping into bed, "Look, I know Chat Noir and _Ladybug_ are partners, but Chat Noir and _Marinette_ are acquaintance. Chat Noir doesn't know about me apart from saving me from akumas. And I'm pretty sure that you don't ask people you've only meet a few times if they can crash at your house."

"He _was_ acting strange," Tikki sighed, "Especially when you mentioned....Marinette?"

Tikki sighed as Marinette was fast asleep, snoring away as soon as her head hit the pillow. The tiny kwami shrugged and went to flip off the lights before taking a spot on Marinette's pillow. Tikki decided to talk to her miraculous holder in the morning, when she was awake and focus, hopefully she could figure out what was going on with her feline counterpart's wielder.

* * *

"What the heck was that all about?!" yelled Plagg as he pop out of the ring.

"Shh! Plagg, keep your voice down!" whispered Adrien, covering the kwami with his hands.

"Oh, knock it off! You know you're home alone!" hissed Plagg, "Your dad's out of the country and that fussy secretary and your bodyguard already left for the night. Now if you'll excuse me for a moment."

Plagg flew out of Adrien's hands and towards his camembert stash in the mini-fridge, shoving a huge wedge of cheese into his gaping mouth. Adrien turned away from the disgusting feeding frenzy his kwami was taking part in. He silently shuffled out of his clothes and back into his own nightwear. Before hopping into bed, Adrien's stomach growled in pain so he headed towards the deserted kitchen.

' _Not much_ ,' thought Adrien as the fridge was filled was basic ingredients like fruits, vegetables, milk and various cooking powder. His father didn't believe in sugary snacks or any form of junk food, 'garbage for the body' is what he called them, he forbad them in the house, only wanting meals made from scratch. Adrien sighed and just settled on an apple.

Trudging backstairs, he spotted Plagg sitting on his pillow, glaring at him. "What?" asked Adrien confused.

"You didn't answer my question, what the heck was that all about?" Plagg asked, crossing his tiny paws.

"What was what all about?" Adrien parroted.

"Ugh! That thing back at the bakery girl's house!" complained Plagg, "Just what were you thinking?! **_'_** _Do you mind if I stay over_?' What the heck was that about?!"

"Oh..." blushed Adrien. Honestly, he had no clue why he even asked that. Those words just seemed to blurt out on their own. "I'm not sure...it was an accident..."

Plagg groaned and rolled his eyes, "'Accident', yeah right. More like your jealousy is talking for you."

"What are you talking about? What jealousy?" asked Adrien.

"Spare me your excuses," sneered Plagg, "You do remember that I feel and hear what you're thinking, right? I haven't live this long without feeling that same melodramatic teenage-jealousy junk. You practically growled when the baker girl mention that other guy's name."

Adrien stayed silent so Plagg continued. "Seriously? Oh, that's a great idea: let's stay the night over at some random girl's house while your miraculous is running out of power. What can possible go wrong? Really?! You were just five minutes away from exposing yourself."

"She's not some random girl..." muttered Adrien.

The black kwami groaned loudly as he flopped back onto the pillow. Adrien chose to ignore him as he crawled into bed, facing away from him. Plagg wasn't going to take that and started smacking the blonde on the cheek. "Oh no you don't! You don't get to tune me out!"

"Plagg, I get it! It was stupid and I won't do it again," grumbled Adrien.

"That's not what this is about," replied Plagg, "This is about your stupid jealousy and protectiveness over some girl."

"That's not true," Adrien said, sitting up from his bed, "I just...wanted to spend time with her."

"Asleep?" Plagg said deadpanned, "Do you not realize what would happen?"

"Marinette wouldn't tell," Adrien mutter, "She's not that type of girl..."

"But she's friends with that reporter girl and we both know how she is!" argued Chat Noir, "And even if your power didn't run out, how weird would it be for Chat Noir to be at some random girl's house overnight? How would you explain that to people?"

"Uh..." stammered Adrien, realizing how odd that would be.

"Exactly," finished Plagg before laying back on the pillow, "Go to bed and think about how stupid you were."

"Yes, _dad_ ," hissed Adrien, laying back into his bed with a huff.

"Ugh, human relationships," muttered Plagg, getting into a comfortable position, "Why, oh why, do I have to deal with these stupid and confusion relationships? This is why I always prefer cheese."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh! Finally finished with this chapter! I hated this chapter so much! It's a filler but needed to see how Adrien's jealousy is growing and slowly seeping through into his life. Glad to finally wrap this up, even if it's short. Honestly, if I put too much time on it, I'll go back to that horrible cycle or redoing and keeping all my readers waiting another months and I don't want to put you all through that again!  
> Anyway, sorry about the unannounced hiatus I took from Fanfiction/Ao3, my Junior year got super crazy with the finals, put I'm just so happy to get all As (and one B-/C+, due to my late attendance for the last few days) on my report. Let me tell you, going three days on three hours of sleep is not fun! It's terrifying and honestly, people are not lying when they say they start seeing shadows in the corner of their eyes. But I over with that, back home, well rested and working at my internship (required for my senior year). Just one more year left until I graduate! Thankfully I only have three classes this semester too. Just wanted to let you guys know what's happening on my end. I'm back and ready to write!  
> Read & Review!


	8. Confusion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette wonders about Chat Noir's 'weird' attitude from the previous night, some Aristide & Marinette bonding and more jealous Adrien

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What? You thought I was only going to upload one chapter? After the long hiatus I made you guys and girls go through? Nope! I'm uploading two, you all deserve it for sticking by me after all this time. Wish I could have uploaded more by I didn’t want to make the wait longer. So enjoy!

"Why does that drawing have cat ears and tails?" asked Tikki, peaking over Marinette's shoulder.

"Huh?" Marinette glanced down at the design she was sketching and was horrified to see that she did, in fact, add cat ears and a tail, "Ugh! Not again."

She crumpled up the design and threw it into the overflowing waste can of other rejected drawings. Marinette groaned and place her head into her arm. "That's the eight one today! What the heck is wrong with me?"

First it was doodling cats in her notebook during class, then icing grew paw prints on the cupcakes in the bakery and now her designs! Luckily, none of her classmates saw her notes and the employees and customers thought she was just making Ladybug and Chat Noir inspired cupcakes. Some even bought a few, but that was beside the point! Chat Noir wasn't even here and he was already taking over her day!

Tikki giggled. "Chat Noir on the brain?"

"Unfortunately," Marinette muttered, her voice muffed by her arms, "My mind keeps going back to last night and how weird he was."

After the fuzzy of sleeplessness dissipated from her mind, Marinette thought back to Chat Noir's recent visit and the strangeness of it all. First off, Chat Noir never visited her that late. Sure, some visits bordered on midnight but never passed that. Second, why was he so eager on visiting her? I mean, the kitty was very friendly to all of his 'fans', especially toward Marinette since she saw him as his own hero and not Ladybug's sidekick, but this was pushing it. Also, what was with that last question?!

"Why on Earth would he ask to stay over at my house," mumbled Marinette, to no one in particular, "He's only really met Marinette at least half a dozen time. Why would he asked a complete stranger to stay at their house?"

Immediately, her head shot up. "Oh no! Did he realize that I'm Ladybug!?" A few seconds later she relaxed, "No, no if he knew, he would have told me, or started flirting with me."

"Do you want my opinion?" asked Tikki, fluttering above her head.

Marinette shrugged, pulling out another sheet of paper. "Sure, by all means, if you have an idea why Chaton was acting so weird, I'm all ears," she said while started to sketch out a figure.

"I may be wrong, but..." Tikki trailed, "It seems like Chat Noir was jealous."

Marinette stopped, her pencil halfway done with a skirt. "Jealous? Of what?"

"I'm not sure, but didn't he seem...agitated?" asked Tikki.

She paused and tried to think back to the night before. Marinette hadn't noticed anything odd, though most of her focus was on her dress proof and not on her feline partner. She tried to think about what they talked about: her dresses, school, the bakery, his injury from the latest akuma fight, nothing that could cause jealousy of any kind, not unless Chat Noir secretly wanted to sew or bake.

"I didn't notice anything," replied Marinette, "Why? Did you notice something?"

"Well, when you mentioned Aristide, Chat Noir became a bit...angry," explained Tikki.

"Really?" Marinette was confused, "Why would he be angry at Aristide? I don't think he's even met the guy. Plus, Aristide is one of the nicest people around! I doubt he did anything that would cause Chat Noir to be angry with him."

Tikki didn't reply, but she had an idea why Chat Noir could be angry at Aristide. Cats were notorious for being territorial, especially towards people they care about. How ironic that both sides of Marinette, the normal girl and the superhero, had caught Chat Noir's eye. Though she wasn't going to mention that to Marinette, the poor thing would just fiercely deny it.

"Marinette!" Aristide poked his head through her trap door, Tikki took cover behind the computer before being spotted, "Your parents have this big delivery for some fancy gala at the Palais Bourbon. Politicians and the likes, so they asked me to make you an early dinner."

Marinette laughed. "Very well, Chief Fournier, what do you recommend?" she asked in an overly exaggerated snooty voice.

"Whatever the fair lady wishes," he joked back, "Duck galantine, vegan charcuterie, coquilles Sain-Jacques, coq au vin, escargo..."

Both burst out in laughter for a few seconds before calming themselves down. "Alright, Master Chief, how about something light and simple: cordon bleu with some garlic bread. Can you make enough for two? Alya is coming over later."

"Aye-aye captain," Aristide gave a mock salute before hopping down the stairs.

"I think you're over thinking things," replied Marinette, turning to Tikki, "Aristide is really nice. Why would Chat Noir be mad at him? Maybe he was angry at something else."

"Maybe..." Tikki said, but she doubted.

"I better help Aristide," Marinette got up from her chair putting away her drawings, "Don't want him eating my food after he finish cooking it."

Watching the pig-tailed girl descend down the stairs, Tikki decided to hang back and stay in her room. The ladybug kwami was almost 95% sure that the close relationship between Aristide and Marinette were the cause of Chat Noir's increasing animosity. She had seen this time and time before with previous Chat Noirs; Herakles and Robin Hood were one of the most notable ones. She only hoped that this latest bout of Chat Noir-related jealousy wouldn't end in some form of destruction. Tikki didn't want to go through another 'Helen of Troy' incident again.

Once was quite enough!

* * *

"Hey! Aristide, you got flour in my hair!" complained Marinette.

Aristide and Marinette were elbow deep in flour and bread dough, ripping off chunks and rolling them into long strips before brushing melted garlic butter. The cordon bleu were already in the oven baking, the smell of crispy chicken and melted cheese permeated the air, so the two started on making garlic bread sticks. Though halfway through, Aristide got a bit bored with the sticks and started folding the dough into funny shapes which cause some of the flour underneath to fly into the air.

"Sorry about that, Mari," apologized Aristide, "Just shake it off."

"Ugh," Marinette did just that and tried to shake off the white powder from her pigtail.

"Check it out," Aristide took a step back to showcase his work, "Animal bread!"

Rabbit, bear and butterfly-shaped dough were placed on a greased tray ready to be baked. "Aww, that's so cute!" gushed Marinette before frowning, "Now I'll feel bad about eating them."

"Yeah, I use to make these for my niece for her birthdays," stated Aristide, wiping his hand on his apron, "She felt so bad about eating them every time I made them that I switch from animal shapes to flowers."

"You should teach the other employees how to make them," Marinette offered, "I'm sure the girls would love that."

"I'd like too but I can't," replied Aristide, checking on the oven, "I want to make these one of my restaurant's specialties."

"Understandable," Marinette placed her own bread dough onto the tray, causing some more flour to puff into the air, "Egh! Not again."

"Don't be upset, you look good with white hair," Aristide said cheekily.

"Ha-ha, very funny," replied Marinette. Without thinking, took a pinch of flour and tossed it at Aristide.

"Hey!" Aristide lifted his arm to try to cover himself from the cloud of flour, "No fair."

"Don't be upset, you look good with white hair," parroted Marinette.

"Oh, it's on pigtails," smirked Aristide, taking his own pinch of flour and tossing it towards Marinette.

Quickly, Marinette, ducked and grabbed a handful of flour and chucked it at Aristide. Pretty soon, the two of them were in the mist, literally, of a flour fight. Both were laughing hysterically, ignoring the fact that the kitchen and some parts of the living room was a mess, or how much trouble they would get in. Marinette was covered head to toe in flour while Aristide's hair looked pure white along with his clothes and the top part of his skin.

Both had to stop for a couple of times, either to clear their lungs of flour or get a sip of water, but both were right back onto the fight. It really amazed Marinette that they didn't run out of flour from the one bag they used by she didn't dwell on it for long, not when she had to duck from another shower of flour. Aristide quickly circled his arm around her head in a mock-headlock.

"Hey! No fair!" shouted Marinette.

"All's fair in love and war," smiled Aristide in a sing-song voice.

Marinette blew air in his face which caused the flour on him to fly about, temporarily blinding him. Marinette slipped out of his grip and ducked beneath the counter just as Aristide threw another pinch of flour at her. The two were so busy trying to hit each other with flour, they didn't hear the door opening. The pigtailed girl giggled as she scooped up a palm size amount of flour and blindly threw it over the counter.

Unfortunately for Marinette, this batch she threw hit Alya square in the face.

"Alya! Mon dieu, I'm so sorry," Marinette cried out, running over to her friend with a wet rag.

"Our bad," called out Aristide, "Princess and I were having a flour-fight."

"Put up a warning sign next time, huh?" joked Alya as she took the rag to wipe her face, "Nice hair."

Marinette groaned as she saw how bad she looked and grabbed her own wet rag to wipe her face, arms and hair. "I thought you weren't coming over until later."

"It's 6:30pm," Alya pointed at the clock.

"Oh," Marinette replied sheepishly, "Well why don't you go upstairs while I clean up and we can start the fitting."

"Sorry girl, change of plans!" answered Alya, "Nino won two pairs of tickets to the new Wonder Woman movie that was playing so we decided to come over."

"We..." squeaked Marinette as she glanced over Alya's shoulder to see Nino and Adrien in the hallway.

"Hi Marinette," waved Nino, "Looks like you guys were having fun!"

Choking under her breath, Marinette felt as if her soul left her body as Adrien smiled and waved at her. She fully realized how awful she must have looked with messy pigtails, stained clothing and, of course, covered in flour. Her eyes trailed down at the rag she was holding and her arms and saw that it didn't wipe off the flour completely. The rag had left behind mushy streaks of wet powder all along her skin. Then she remembered she had wiped her face with it.

' _Yep, just let me die here_...' Marinette felt her face heat up.

Alya patted a paralyzed Marinette on her shoulder and started leading her towards the bathroom. "Come on, girl," Alya said, "Let's get you cleaned up. Aristide, how about you clean the living room so the Dupain-Cheng don't chop you up and bake you in a pie."

"Don't worry, they wouldn't do that," Aristide joked as he pulled out a vacuum from the pantry, "I would taste _terrible_ in a pie."

The group laughed except for Adrien whose smile seemed very strained. He started looking around as Alya pushed Marinette into the bathroom and Aristide started vacuuming the room. A loud dinging sound echoed through the room which only stopped when the assistant baker opened the oven door.

"Cordon bleus are ready," he called out, "Do you guys want some? I've made plenty."

"Yes, please!" called out Nino, dragging an unwilling Adrien into the flour dusted room.

"Watch your step," warned Aristide, wiping down the counter, "And wait for the chicken to cool. I just took it out of the oven."

Alya came back to fetch some clothing for Marinette when she spotted some of the bread dough that Aristide created, surprisingly, untouched by the fight Marinette and Arisitde had. "Aww, those are so cute!" squealed Alya.

Aristide chuckled. "Marinette said the same thing. I should put them in the oven," he took the two trays off the counter, "When does your movie start? Do you think you'll have time to eat some dinner with Marinette and I."

"Please say yes," begged Nino, looking at Alya.

"We do," agreed Alya, "The movie doesn't start for another two hours. We were only coming over to inform Marinette and maybe get some ice cream."

"We can still do that," stated Nino, taking a bite out of a cordon bleu, "Oh, this is our friend, Adrien, I'm not sure if you've been introduced."

"Hi, nice to meet you," waved Aristide, "I'd shake your hand but I'd get flour all over it."

"It's okay, nice to meet you," Adrien gave a weak smile before pulling out his phone, "Uh, excuse me, I need to take this phone call."

"I didn't hear it ring," said Nino with his mouth full of chicken.

"It's on silent, I'll be right back," Adrien ran out of the room and quickly down the stairs. He exited through the backed door and ducked into a nearby alley for cover just in case anyone walked by.

Once outside, Plagg quickly flew out into the air, brushing off invisible dust from his fur. "And we have an emotional breakdown in three...two...one..."

"What the heck was that about?!" shouted Adrien.

"Boom," said Plagg in a slightly amused tone, "Alright, what is it now?"

"What do you mean 'what is it now?!' Didn't you see that?!" exacerbated Adrien.

"Really...it's not that big a deal," grumbled Plagg.

"How is that not a big deal?! Why was he constantly grabbing at her and putting his arm around her? And what did he mean by 'all's fair in love and war?' I mean this can't be normal? Is it normal?" ranted Adrien, "Do people just let some random guy into their house? Is it normal to just play around with someone they've only known for a while? And why does he keep calling her princess?!"

"Ugh," Plagg groaned as his wielder continued on with his battling hormones, "Why do I always get stuck with the emotionally confused ones?"

First it was Husani with Lapis, then it Theseus and Hippolyta, followed by Tjarambwa and Mudekudeku and so on and so forth until his last Miraculous Holder Felix and that Bridgette girl. Plagg just couldn't seem to get a break when it came to his chosen ones. He sometimes wonders if the others have to deal with something like this.

However, Plagg soon snapped out of memory lane once he reminded himself that his current owner hadn't stop rambling. "Oy! Stop babbling! People passing by will think you're crazy."

"Don't you see anything wrong with that?" asked Adrien, his face slightly red.

"No," Plagg said bluntly, "Its two dumb human acting like a bunch of kids and throwing powder at each other, which is just a huge waste if you asked me."

"Ugh! Why did I think to ask you?" Adrien growled.

"Because you're afraid people will think you're overreacting," replied Plagg, checking his paw like a girl would check her nails, "Which you are."

Adrien groaned and leaned back against the wall. "You don't think it's weird? I mean, they aren't related and they've only known each other for just over a month...isn't that kind of odd?"

" _You are waaay overthinking this_ ," thought Plagg. "It's probably weird to you because you haven't been around people."

"Huh, what do you mean?" asked Adrien.

"Look kid, you told me that before meeting me, you've never been around people who weren't celebrities," began Plagg, "And that your only source of what 'normal people' do is from that Chloe girl because she's such a _viable_ source. And those stupid anime and sitcoms you watch are not even remotely realistic."

"What's your point, Plagg," asked Adrien impatiently.

"All I'm saying is what you find odd or weird may not be to another person," replied Plagg, "You just need to calm down and try to understand that baker girl's relationship..."

"NOT a relationship," Adrien cut in.

"... _friendship_ with Aristide is just normal for her," state Plagg, "So stop worrying about nothing and try not to let it affect you so much."

"So you think my naivety is to blame?" asked Adrien.

"It wouldn't be the first time," responded Plagg, "Remember your first day at a public school?"

"...maybe your right, Plagg," Adrien muttered.

"Finally you admit it," the tiny cat scoffed, "Now you should head back inside before your friends start looking for you."

Adrien nodded and opened his jacket to let Plagg inside before heading back inside. Meanwhile, Plagg sighed as he got comfy in Adrien's pocket. Don't get him wrong, Plagg felt a bit guilty about telling Adrien that it was his naivety to blame but goddamn it, he was tired! Obviously he wasn't listening to Plagg when he told him that he was jealous, which he completely was!

And the kwami was sick and tired of listening to the kid rant and rave about Marinette and Aristide and whether them hanging out was weird or not. Not to mention the late night visits to her house to 'check up on her'. So he just blamed it on his lack of interaction with normal people and taking notes from TV shows and anime because seriously, who thinks those are remotely realistic?

His ears perked up when he heard other voices, Adrien had made it back to the room with his friends and were getting ready to leave. Plagg took this as his cue to fall asleep, he'd would wake up later to the scent of buttery popcorn. Plagg only hoped that Adrien would accept this explanation and quit the excessive questioning. He already dealt with Felix's three year-long mixed emotion battle between Bridgette and Ladybug, he didn't want to deal with another one!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And done! This one was pretty short too but it helped me get back into the writing flow so that’s good for me! I’ve already started working on chapter 9 during this week, plus the beginning chapters of Glass Slipper. Hopefully, I can get another chapter uploaded by the end of this week but I can’t hope any promises. I’m trying to apply to lots of scholarships in order to get some additional money for my final year in college so there is that. Anyway, thank you to all my fans for sticking by me for all this time.  
> Read & Review!


End file.
